ArchonWar
by DarkShiftRising
Summary: Sorry for the wait! CH 3 now up, so read and review please! I may edit this chapter sometime in the near future though.
1. Prologue

Archon War

Prologue

Floating in a dimension unreachable by any possible human means is the structure known as the Magnion Fortress. A titanic construct, founded on a single massive asteroid, it floats in the stark gray void. No laws of physics apply in this dimension, save the ones the ruler of the fortress decides. Deep within its walls, machinery hums as gigantic screens flicker, various tactical data streaming across their surface. All of it displaying a war of strategy between two forces, like a game of chess. Only much more serious and deadly than any game could ever be. In his throne room, the Magnum Phoenix, Archon of the Ultima, sits brooding over one such display.

..._This is a vital area in this dimension. If it were lost, I would have no choice but to fall back, leaving it open to the ravages of Draconis..._

You see, when you play with entire dimensions as your battlefield and the lives of every living thing within them as a possible casualty, there is absolutely no room for mistakes.

Footsteps echo across the tiled floors, attracting his attention.

An orange haired girl comes striding towards him carrying a data board. No doubt carrying his Draconis counterpart's latest treachery.

"Sir, this just came in from one of our operatives. The Syndicate seems to be mobilizing in this dimension here, using that dimension's version of Earth as their starting point"

He reaches out for it with his left hand. The flowing white cloak he wears hangs limply over the empty right shoulder, a painful reminder of the price he had paid for failing to protect the people of one such dimension.

Never again... "Sir...? ...Are you okay...?"

He looks up. The girl is gazing at him, concern and worry easily readable in her expression.

"You looked...kind of sad. Were you thinking about... that day again...?" She hesitated, knowing that her commander disliked anyone bringing up that subject.

The Archon sighed, shaking off the memories that had resurfaced.

"Yes...yes, I was. But I'm fine now, thank you. You don't need to worry about me so much, you know."

"Oh...I-I'm sorry, sir. Forgive me..." She lowered her head, ashamed, her hair falling forward to hide her eyes.

"Still, that doesn't mean I don't appreciate it. I'd just rather that you didn't have to trouble yourself with me so much."

The girl gasped and looked up. To her surprise, he was smiling at her.

"Thank you, Xenovia."

She smiled slightly, a tinge of pink appearing on her cheeks.

"I-It's no trouble to me, Magnum!"

He sighed.

"Would you mind not calling me that? You know I don't much like my friends calling me by my alias."

She smiled playfully.

"Okay...Alex-chan!"

The Archon sank lower in his chair muttering in embarrassment. Attempting to distract himself from Xenovia's stifled giggles, he turned his attention to the new information. He raised an eyebrow.

"Tarak and Mejere? Men and women living on separate planets? And they hate each other, thinking that they're two different races. Oh, brilliant. What idiot's responsible for that screwup, I wonder"

"I know! It's strange, isn't it?" Xenovia replied. She turned thoughtful. "Although, it does present some interesting possibilities..."

The Archon nodded.

"I agree, but let's wait until we've sorted out this battle before we go into any scientific detail."

His eyes continued moving down the board, until he reached the part dedicated to Earth-based Draconis operations.

Xenovia, awaiting her next orders, jumped with surprise as the Magnum Phoenix suddenly bolted upright in his throne, his eyes widening in shock and anger.

"Project Harvest... Dedicated to the culling of all outlying planetary colonies to obtain superior genetic and biological material for the advancement and betterment of Earth's population... An initiative of the Xelander Krelac Syndicate...Bastards!" He swore violently.

Xenovia looked at him, confused.

"Well, that proves that the Syndicate is behind it, but what's so terrible about the collection of biological material?"

"You're too innocent, Xenovia." He said, his voice tight. "You haven't seen the list of materials that they want..." He took a deep breath.

"Material targeted for harvesting: White blood cells, red blood cells, spinal cord, lymph nodes, skin..." The Archon's voice trailed off. Xenovia clapped a hand to her mouth, fighting the urge to be violently sick.

'Human material!' she thought, horrified.

The Magnum Phoenix raised his head and looked at her, his face white with rage.

"I cannot sit idly by and let Draconis and their blasted Syndicate get away with this monstrosity! Xenovia, activate Axel Edge and Axel Sixgun, and dispatch them to Tarak immediately!"

"R-right away, sir!" Xenovia stammered, her nausea at Draconis' plan set aside for now.

The expression on the Magnum Phoenix's face was as cold and terrifying as a winter blizzard as he stared down at the tactical layout of the new dimension he would be fighting to save.

'_KRELAC, you **monster**!!_'


	2. 1:Infiltration

**Chapter One: Infiltration**

**Surface of planet Tarak**

**Launching platform of the Ikazuchi flagship.**

The Prime Minister of Tarak finally arrived at his closing statement. He stared out proudly over the sea of eager faces before him, each clad in the sand colored uniform of the Tarak military. With this force of fresh soldiers, and the new vastly upgraded Ikazuchi at his command, there was no doubt in his mind that this would be the beginning of the end for the vile Mejere.  
At the back of the assembly, there was a brief silent scuffle, completely unnoticed by anyone else. One unfortunate cadet vanished for a moment and was replaced quickly by another man wearing the luckless cadet's uniform. He paused for a moment to adjust the standard-issue military beret over his blazing orange hair, pulling it down so that it rested at a rakish angle, covering his right eye. He flicked the four spikes of hair dangling over the left side of his face, so they came to just above his eye, and sighed.

"Guy's so pompous and full of himself, a freaking full scale riot could probably break out down here and he'd just plow right on." He muttered.

He stared up at the dim, smog-obscured sky with piercing blue eyes. A black silhouette flitted through the pollution above him, damn near impossible to spot unless you were looking for it in the first place. He allowed a small smile to flicker across his face. His brother was en route to the Ikazuchi and his designated location. In the front ranks stood a tall man with long black hair, his face betraying no sign of emotion as he listened to the Prime Minister's speech. He seemed to exude an aura of calm collectedness that was unfazed by anything around him. Two rows back, a blonde haired man also listened to the Prime Minister's speech, but with considerably less attention, yawning widely.

The stranger tuned back in to the Prime Minister's speech in time to catch the part he had predicted would come.

"We shall at last reclaim our place in the stars, by first wiping out the scourge of pirates that have been harassing our transports! Why wait until the designated time? Let us go forth now!" He raised his fist to the sky as the new soldiers roared their appreciation.

At the back of the assembly, the stranger smirked and shook his head.

"Completely reckless and idiotic. Kind of like me, only I'm much less predictable than that." He flicked his bangs again and stared up at the podium, resting his right hand on his hip. His eyes narrowed and he grinned as he lit a cigarette.

"And so the Axel brothers make their entrance into the fight! I swear, this guy's gonna make life a lot easier for us to get everything into place."

So saying, Axel Sixgun turned and disappeared into the crowd.

'I wonder how Edge is doing?'

Elsewhere, at the Vanguard hangar aboard the Ikazuchi, the door hissed open to reveal a certain black-haired third-class citizen.

"Ha! Not bad, eh?" Hibiki Tokai grinned to himself.

He strode into the hangar, light from the corridor behind him his only illumination as he searched for the Vanguard bearing his part.

"Come on, where is it? Maybe they didn't use it because of the scratch on it. Ah!"

He stopped in delight.

"There you are! So that's where you've been hiding, eh, partner?" As Hibiki stared up at the Vanguard bearing his mark, standing tall and noble, he felt tears come to his eyes .

"Just look at you! You've gotten so big! I'm so proud of you, I'm gonna take you home right now!" He leapt for the cockpit.

At that instant, one room away, the Prime Minister gave the order to lift off.

Far below them, the mighty thruster system ignited, blasting the massive ship free of its dock as it soared toward the heavens, the support of an entire planet behind it.

This however was completely lost on one unfortunate third class citizen who was promptly buried under a pile of loose cargo.

"Owww! H-hey! What's happening?!"

He struggled over to the porthole. What he saw did not make him feel any better about his current situation.

"We're leaving! This is not good..." He whimpered. A sudden noise behind him made him whirl around, to an amazing sight.  
The left wall of the hangar had suddenly turned black. As in pure black, not just a shadow or something. As he gaped at it, the darkness suddenly swirled in to the center to form a spiraling vortex, and... something came out of it.

The figure landed, dropping to the floor in a crouch. At first, Hibiki couldn't make out what exactly it was, but as it slowly straightened up to a well over six foot height, the vortex slowly dying, he recognized it. The figure was a man, clad in a solid black cloak wrapped around him, effectively hiding any clues to the body beneath it. He had short dark purple, almost black hair, and a high collar that covered the lower half of his face. As the man turned his head slowly, looking from left to right, Hibiki saw that the right side of his face had a strange metal mask partially covering it. Where his right eye would have been was now a glowing cybernetic one that matched the movements of the left, while the mask continued back along his cheekbone, before abruptly widening out into an ax shape that stopped just before his ear. Two dangerous looking swords were cross-sheathed on his back, each at least six feet long. Any further observations were forestalled by the stranger locking onto Hibiki's presence. The red eyes narrowed as he turned towards the now extremely nervous third-class citizen.

"Hey! Who the hell are you?!" Hibiki yelled at him.

The stranger was silent as he looked around the chamber. After a few moments, he turned to Hibiki, and tossed a piece of paper to him. After a few tries, he managed to catch it, and opened it.

"H-hey! This is-!" It was a fully detailed blueprint of the Ikazuchi's internal layout, down to the last detail. He looked back up at the man.

"Huh?"

The stranger indicated the room around them and pointed to the map with a black gloved hand.

"You don't know where this is? It's the Vanguard hangar, right about...here." Hibiki pointed to a spot on the blueprint.

The man nodded his thanks and turned his attention towards the Van-types. Seeing as though the stranger meant him no harm, Hibiki opened his mouth hesitantly.

"Say, who the heck are you anyway?"

The stranger seemed to consider the question for a moment, before he answered.

"Edge Axel."

"Okay... You're not gonna, uh... try to kill me or anything right...?"

A flicker of what could have been confusion passed across Edge's face before he shook his head. Hibiki gave a sigh of relief.

"Heh, you had me worried for a moment. The name's Hibiki. Hibiki Tokai." He held out the blueprint. Edge reached out and took it, two black-gloved fingers closing over the edges. Hibik took the opportunity to take a closer look at Edge. The strange black cloak he was wearing seemed to be made of a strange, tough leathery material that moved as easily as silk.

"What's that stuff made out of?" He asked.

Edge stowed the blueprint and turned his attention back to their dim surroundings.

'Doesn't talk much, does he?' Hibiki thought .

"Hey, Edge"

Edge turned his attention back to the boy.

"What are you doing here anyway?"

Before Edge could answer, they heard the sounds of people on the other side of the massive doors, opposite Hibiki's entrance. He quickly signaled Hibiki to silence and turned his attention to the voices.

In the main ballroom, the cadets of the Tarak Space Forces were rather busy enjoying the inauguration ceremonies as they drank their wine and talked with one another.

One of these cadets was none other Axel Sixgun, who was more than happy to sample the free drinks while he focused his attention on the various conversations going on around him.

"I can't wait to go into battle!"

"Neither can I!"

'_Tch. Rookies._'

"When can we see those new weapons we heard so much about?"

"Those new Vanguards will surely put those women in their rightful places!"

'_Rightful places, my foot. How many times have you guys gotten owned again?_'

"Say, after all this is over, do you want to make a kid?"

"A kid with you? That's not a bad idea."

Dead silence from Sixgun.

'_Er...Moving right along, then..._'

As the various tidbits of conversation waved through the air and the celebration continued, he spotted an interesting target.

"Hey, Duelo. I heard that you made the top of your class."

The individual named Duelo simply nodded as he sipped his wine. He was the rather tall raven-haired man Sixgun had seen during the assembly with one bang covering the right side of his face. He carried the demeanor of an educated and creative mind.

Also dangerous as hell, if you're undercover and trying not to be noticed.

"Yeah, congratulations are in order you know... hell, you could be assigned to head-quarters." Another cadet spoke out.

"I hear that when he took the qualification exams he left the position line of his submission entry form completely blank." Another cadet chimed in as he came to the group.

"Are you serious?"

'_What is this, a tutorial in sucking up?! Jeez..._'

Just then another cadet came in carrying a box filled with pink and white colored pellets.

"Hey guys! Everyone having a good time now?"

The group turned to see another newcomer arrive; wearing the same cadet uniform as they did, but somehow managing to seem completely out of place in the atmosphere of a military ship. He lacked the build of a soldier, somewhat skinny, with a mess of blonde hair. His voice was a bit nasal sounding and he seemed to be quite full of himself. None of which stopped him from offering the group the food pills.

"Here! Take some of this; this stuff is a lot better than the ones you get in the factories. I got them through some good connections. Think of these as free samples since I'm giving you some. Strictly confidential, though!"

The cadets each looked nervously at the pellets.

"Thanks for the offer. But no thanks."

"Yeah, I'm rather full right now."

"Same here. Sorry."

"Thanks for the offer anyway."

The man shrugged his shoulders. "Okay if you insist, but know that you might never get to eat this good again! Well hello there! You two seem to be gentlemen of distinguished taste!" The last comment was directed at two passing cadets who he trailed after with the same sales pitch.

'_...He didn't even finish talking before he started up again...Wow..._'

"Who was that guy?" one of the cadets asked to his fellow crewmembers.

"His dad owns the Garsus Foods Cooperation. Put it simply, his family feeds us and let's not go any further than that."

"Geez. I think I'm getting a case of heartburn." One cadet said as he thumped on his chest in exaggeration.

Before the others could respond, the lights dimmed, a video screen lowering at the front of the room. It flickered for a moment and began to play, showing combat images of the military's new secret weapon, the Tsukumo Van-type machines.

Despite himself, Sixgun was interested.

'_Impressive. They've maximized the capabilities for close range combat by outfitting them with just about every melee weapon you can find. These must be the designs I discovered in that heavily protected section of the military database. Nice_.'

One of the clips shown was that of a squad of Vanguards crossing a battlefield amid heavy opposing fire. One of the mechs was moving on steadily, arms raised in a 'macho' pose, and took a rocket to the chest. It stopped for a minute and continued moving as though nothing had happened. Sixgun cocked an eyebrow.

'_Uh-huh. Right. I wonder how many of these clowns are gonna rush into battle, confident in their 'invincibility' and get their asses blown to hell._' He thought, lapsing back into his natural cynicism.

"Let's hear a big round of applause for the new Tsukumo-type Vanguards!"

Sixgun dropped his cigarette. The doors to the hangar in the back were opening.

'_Oh,_ SHIT.' That was most definitely **NOT** a part of the plan.

As the doors finished opening, the lights in the hangar snapped on to display two dozen completed Vanguard machines. The cadets cheered wildly and applauded. That however, died after a few moments as they noticed something out of place. Or rather, two things out of place.

Edge's eye twitched.

...God damn it all.

Halfway up the front of the first Vanguard, Hibiki managed a small, nervous laugh.

"Who are they?!"

"Hey, that kid's a third-class citizen!"

"Yeah, but who's the other guy?"

"What's up with his face? And what the heck is the deal with his clothes?"

"Maybe he's a third class citizen as well!"

"How'd they manage to get onboard the Ikazuchi?"

Duelo glanced at the boy for a moment. From his appearance, it's quite likely that he's just some wannabe Vanguard pilot. The other man, however...

The stranger stared out at the crowd, his eyes cold, showing no trace of fear or any other emotion for that matter. The possibility of him being a third-class citizen as well seemed highly unlikely. From what Duelo could tell, the stranger carried himself far too proudly to be anything so low-ranked. There was also the fact that no third class citizen was allowed to carry a weapon, and this man was violating that ban in an extremely obvious way. His physical ability must be incredible if he could wield those blades with any degree of skill. Any other physical details were hidden by the strange cloak he wore. As for the strange metal half-mask he wore... A method of hiding his identity? No, his high collar did that effectively enough. Something he needs to hide, then?

At that point, security personnel from all over the room began closing in on the two strangers. Beneath his cloak, Edge's hands twitched, instinctively reaching for his blades.

_...No. Not yet..._

His eyes narrowed as he waited for them to make the first move. To his left, Hibiki, deciding that it was now or never, launched himself off the Vanguard and bolted for the higher ground of the statue nearby. Four guards raced after him, more than happy to leave the dangerous looking stranger to the others. After a few moments of eyeing Edge nervously, they finally worked up the nerve to rush him.

Edge flexed his fingers, the joints cracking.

Moments later, all six guards were stretched out on the floor in agony, groaning as they held their various injuries. Edge stood in the middle of them, a raven specter staring down at them with disdain. He hadn't moved an inch from his spot.

...Useless...

Duelo nodded approvingly, his interest deepening. This man, whoever he was, was a master of close range combat. Six separate attacks had come at him from various directions and he had beat them all without returning a single one. As near as Duelo could figure out, the stranger had simply read the timing and direction of their attacks and simply moved his upper body to allow the attacks to miss him completely and continue straight into one of the other unlucky soldiers. All without ever revealing anything underneath his cloak.

Atop the statue, Hibiki stared at him in disbelief, temporarily pausing from kicking off the other guards.

'_He... he just beat them all! Just like that! How the hell did he do that?!_'

One of the guards who had taken less damage than his comrades, staggered back upright, wiping the blood from his chin as he stared at Edge, enraged. Edge glanced back at him disinterestedly.

"You... you, a lowly third class rodent, dare to strike down a member of the military?! You'll pay for that!" he shouted.

"..." Edge looked at him unmoving, his expression changing, very slightly, to one of boredom, which only served to heighten the guard's anger.

"You insolent dog! Are you even listening to me?!"

Edge seemed to think for a moment, before turning back to the guard.

"...No." He said calmly.

A vein popped on the guard's forehead.

"D-damn you! You...you factory reject!" The guard screamed as he lunged at Edge.

Edge's widened slightly, before they narrowed again, the barest hint of anger flaring through his icy countenance.  
In the crowd of spectators, a familiar figure sighed.

"He really shouldn't have called him that. Ah well."

WHAM!

Sitting on the edge of one of the tables, a glass of expensive champagne in his hand, Sixgun sighed again and ducked. Milliseconds later, the unfortunate guard sailed past his head, hurtling the full length of the room to slam into the opposite wall with a painful crash. Sixgun straightened back up, drained the glass, discarded it and promptly swiped another, completely unfazed.

At the front of the room, Edge stared after the guard, gauntleted fist still extended, his face unreadable. A sudden noise made him whip around, to find several weapons pointed at him and the now-subdued Hibiki.

His eyes flickered toward the crowd for a brief instant, locking eyes with his brother. Sixgun made the slightest of nods, invisible to anyone not paying close attention to him, but it was enough for Edge.

He turned back to the guards, and raised his hands slightly, allowing them to move in and restrain him. The two intruders were then hurried off to the detention area, to await the Prime Minister's displeasure.

The entire exchange between Edge and Sixgun had taken mere milliseconds, but still one person had managed to follow Edge's quick glance and find the target. Duelo's unconcealed eye narrowed slightly. So there were two of them, working as a team.

The one in the crowd, posing as a soldier, seemed to be much more relaxed and carefree than his partner, moving through the people, sneaking various glasses of different drinks as he went. Suddenly, he turned, his gaze meeting Duelo's. The two eyed each other for a brief moment, before Sixgun gave a cocky grin and half raised his glass in a toast, a professional courtesy to the elite who had seen through his charade. With that, he turned away and was gone, only a faint wisp of cigarette smoke to show that he had been there.

Duelo stared musingly after him for a few seconds, trying to fathom his purpose here, but aside from the thought of being a possible Mejere assassin, (highly unlikely, considering his appearance), nothing else came to mind.

...Unless, of course he/she had undergone major surgery for this job.

On the other side of the room, Sixgun suddenly sneezed.

"Damn. I wonder if that means someone's insulting me. Oh well."

Duelo turned his attention in the direction they had taken the two intruders. The boy was understandable, but the tall, black clad one was a mystery, even to him. Perhaps an undercover elite? What was the objective of these two strangers...? For now, it seemed that only time would provide the answer.

**Elsewhere...**

"Keep an eye on these two, Unit six." One of the guards ordered.

"BEEP! BEEP! Roger."

Hibiki groaned, recovering, then yelled at the guards.

"Hey! You could at least have given me a real cell!"

One of them laughed.

"Ha! This might be just a storage room, but it's more than enough for the likes of you and your friend here. He doesn't seem to be much use without these swords of his, right guys? What the-" The guard turned, stunned. It was taking one guard apiece to hold one of the dangerous looking blades, and this guy carried them both around on his back like they weighed nothing!

In the shadows at the back of the cell, Edge's cybernetic right eye glowed ominously in the dark, the barest gleam of it reflecting off of his human one. Even obscured by darkness and deadly silent, he managed to project an almost solid aura of menace. The guard fought down the fear that had risen in his chest and glared at the silent figure.

"Still won't say anything, huh? Well let's see how confident you two are at your public execution! And you can bet it won't be too quick or painless!" he snarled. "Come on guys, let's head back to the party."

With that, they left the prisoners, one brooding darkly while the other desperately racked his brains in an attempt to find a way out of his current predicament. After a few moments, Hibiki gave up with a sigh.

"Why does my life always turn out this way?"

He turned hesitantly to Edge.

"So what about you? What's your story?"

Edge froze him with an ice-cold glare.

Hibiki moved back a little, nervous.

"Er...right. Uh..."

What do you actually say to someone like that?

Edge's eyes thawed slightly.

"I would rather not speak of my past."

Hibiki recovered slightly.

"Oh, right. Yeah, I can understand that. My life hasn't been all that great either."

He hesitated.

"Can I ask you something?"

Edge nodded.

"Before...What you did back there...How'd you beat all those guys so easily? And why didn't you use your swords?"

"There was no need."

"Where'd you learn to fight like-"

The cell robot outside interrupted them.

"Beep! Quiet in there, third class."

Hibiki turned his attention towards the small machine.

"Hey there partner. Why don't you let me outta here? I mean, we were both born in a factory, right? That practically makes us brothers! Whaddya say?"

"Incorrect. We are composed of entirely different materials."

"But I have this really great generator I can install in you and-"

"BEEP! Denied. Subject is making an improper request. Instigation of bribery is a crime. Therefore..."

Hibiki looked at it, confused.

"Therefore what?"

"Punishment."

KA-ZAP!

"Owww... Stupid machine...Hey, what are you looking at?!"

In response, Edge closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall.

"HEY! I'm talking to you!"

--

From the shadows, Sixgun watched the Prime Minister's platform rise up to the command bridge. He tossed away his cigarette as it disappeared from sight.

"Well, he's outta the way now. I'd better get moving myself. Especially if that signal I detected in the debris fields earlier was what I think it was." He turned away heading for the lower sections. He checked his watch.

"If it was, then everything's going like we figured it would and in the next couple of seconds, I can expect..."

BOOM!

Sixgun smiled.

"...Bingo."

--

**Back in the cells...**

"Hey who do you think I am?! My life's not supposed to turn out like this you know, and-"

"Scanning... You are-"

BOOM!

The entire cell was shaken by a tremendous vibration as the sounds of an explosion echoed through the ship. The robot's hover systems malfunctioned, overcompensating and pitching it into the cell bars. Even as Hibiki was regaining his footing and wondering what the hell had happened, Edge was in motion.

Ignoring the flashes and arcs of high voltage electricity coming from the downed robot and the flaring lasers, he reached through the bars and seized the machine, yanking it through the now considerably weakened lasers. He tossed it to a startled Hibiki.

"Hey! What the- How'd you-Gah! Hot, hot, hot!" He juggled the heated robot frantically until it had cooled enough for human contact.

"Wh-what do you want me to do with this?!"

Edge jerked his head in the direction of the servicing panel for the bars. Hibiki's eyes lit up.

"Of course! I can shut them down with this! I'm brilliant! Hah!"

Edge shook his head in disbelief, before he turned and looked upward through the decks, as he called out to his weapons.  
Four decks up, in the hastily abandoned ballroom, the jewels set into the crosshilt of both blades glowed an answering blue. Slowly, they rose into the air, turning this way and that, searching for their master. After a moment's hesitation, they tilted downwards and tore through the floor, lancing through the ship on a direct course for the waiting Edge. Several moments later, after Hibiki had recovered from the shock of nearly getting skewered by two swords that had ripped through the ceiling, he and Edge were moving rapidly along a corridor that lead to the upper decks. As an afterthought, he decided to take along the still-dormant robot. Flashes of light from a nearby viewport caught his attention. Staring outside, his blood ran cold.

"Oh no! Those are Dreads! That means we're being attacked by women! Aaaah! We need to get out of here now!"

Edge halted, slightly baffled.

"What...?"

"Come on, let's go!"

Hibiki raced off towards the Vanguard hangar, Edge following closely. Edge had no idea why this boy was so afraid of women, like the rest of the men aboard this ship, but he resolved to find out, one way or another.

--

**Elsewhere.**  
Strolling carelessly along one of the catwalks on the top decks, smoking his trademark cigarette, Sixgun looked out at the battle. The sleek, fast-moving fighters-what had the information called them? Dreads?- right, Dreads, were running rings around the much slower Tarak vessels, many of whom, in attempts to hit the enemy, merely ended up missing and blowing up their own ships.

He gave a whistle of admiration as one of the Dreads, a purple one with swept back wings, each ridged into three sections, pulled off a particularly stylish downward barrel roll, releasing a storm of seeker missiles on the way.

"Daaammn. Now that's one babe with some serious skills. Now if only I knew what she looked like, I'd be all set."

As if the universe had just decided to mock him, the Dread looped up and passed directly in front of him. Looking into the cockpit, he was rewarded with a glimpse of...

A young woman, looking to be no older than him, clad in a loose black pressure suit, stared back at him. She had beautiful, violet eyes, and short, dark green hair, held back with a purple headband, a flower shaped metal ornament adorning the left side of it. Their gazes met, for a brief moment, her violet eyes widening in surprise as they met his startled blue one.  
Then it was gone, boosting away over the hull. In the cockpit, Barnette Orangello looked back over her shoulder, her mind reeling. Moments ago, when she had passed one of the observation windows on the upper decks, she had seen someone standing there, leaning on the railing as he watched the battle. Then as her Dread had looped up and over it, the stranger's gaze had met her own. Tall, strongly-built, clad in a dashing military uniform and with a beret rakishly tilted over his right eye, he had stared back at her from across the distance between the two ships. Even though they were so far apart, his eyes on her own had sent an electric charge through her body, a feeling unlike any she'd ever experienced before. Another thing that confused her was the way he had looked at her. Not with revulsion or hatred like the men she was used to, but with something close to...admiration, but at the same time, something...more...

**Back on the Ikazuchi...**

Sixgun stood motionless, staring after the indigo Dread, an unreadable expression on his face.

After a few moments of silence, a smile crept across his features.

"This just might turn out to be fun after all...Heh heh heh..." He lit another cigarette, laughing quietly to himself as he walked away, heading for the area the Dreads had broken into, the echoes dying away behind him.

**The Central Reactor Room.**  
High above the Paeksys reactor, two figures moved across the maze of catwalks, one running frantically, while the other moved as fluidly as the shadows, his body leaning forward as he ran, his cloak flaring out behind him.

Suddenly Edge slowed down and halted, looking over the edge of the catwalk. That energy... "Edge! What's wrong?"

Hibiki's voice pulled Edge back to reality. The strange glowing machine would have to wait... even though he felt as though it was...calling him somehow...

He pointed to the reactor below them.

Hibiki glanced over the railing at the pulsing reactor. "Sorry Edge, but I don't know anything about that thing either. But we really don't have time to be worrying about that now! Come on! Can you move?"

Edge nodded curtly. Suddenly his eyes widened and he whipped around staring up at the ceiling of the reactor area. Hibiki, who by this time had learned the hard way not to ignore Edge when he sensed something like this, followed his gaze, worried.

"What is it?"

Two decks up, a certain blue Dread hurtled out of control. The rookie pilot at the controls was desperately trying to slow her headlong rush, failing miserably.

"Aaaaahh! I can't stop! Help me!" she cried out in panic. Suddenly another wall appeared in front of her, filling her vision. She screamed and instinctively tensed for the crash, her hands accidentally activating her Dread's laser weapons.

Seconds after he sensed the out of control Dread, the ceiling flared white-hot. In the milliseconds before the twin lasers blasted through the metal, Edge lashed out with his leg, in a titanic kick that slammed into Hibiki's abdomen, hurtling him off of the catwalk and to safety. As the lasers finally broke through the ceiling in a mammoth blast that rocketed towards him, Edge turned to face it, his face contorting into a snarl as the catwalk vanished in a brilliant haze of energy.

--

Sixgun raced onward through the maze of corridors. Suddenly he halted, detecting a vibration that rattled through the whole ship. A quick glance out the window confirmed his suspicions. The cowardly leader of the fleet had just ejected their section of the ship leaving the old section Sixgun now stood on for the pirates.

"Time's running out..." he grinned, a glint in his eyes. A feral smile crossed his face.

"After all, this just wouldn't be any fun otherwise. Heh-ha-haaaa!"he laughed wildly as he tore off, his speed increasing rapidly.

--

**On the floor of the reactor chamber.**

Hibiki stared at the strange girl in front of him as she made some weird hand signs.

Just moments ago she was saying something about him being an alien and now she was doing this. Deciding to play along for some strange reason, he mimicked her signs. The red-haired girl, named Dita Liebly, jumped for joy.

"I did it! I did it! I made first contact!"

"Wha-What the hell? I don't have time for this! There's the robot, but what happened to Edge?"

Grabbing the robot, he raced off, Dita in hot pursuit.

"Wait Mr. Alien! I want to take some pictures of you!"

"Aaaah! Get away from me, darn it!"

**The Pirates Main Force.**

The unfortunate Tarak cadets had by this time been rounded up and were being herded at gunpoint into the escape pods.  
"I know it's just a disinfectant, but I don't think I'll ever get used to that smell." Jura Basil Elden complained as she removed her pressure suit. Twenty years old, she was an extraordinarily beautiful woman, and was unafraid to show it, clad in a black dress that reached her ankles. This was slightly pointless as it was slitted along one side all the way to her waist, not to mention a deeply plunging neckline. Annoyed, she stared around the room with bright green eyes, a rapier sheathed at her hip.

"Has anyone seen Dita?" asked another woman. Dressed in a form fitting gray, black and white jumpsuit, she glanced around, her eyes a wintry blue-green color. She wore a strange black circlet on the left side of her face, splitting into two prongs, one above and below her left eye. With short, light blue hair, she carried herself with an air of command. This was Meia Gisborne, commander of the pirate Dread squadrons.

"The last I saw of her, she was crashing through that bulkhead over there, heading down-Ouch!" The speaker was cut off by a nurse who was patching up a wound on her right arm. Barnette winced again as the nurse tightened the bandage slightly. She was Jura's best friend, and had gotten her injury from a stray energy bolt that had managed to break through her pressure suit's toughened layers. She wore a pair of skintight boots that reached halfway up her thighs, a purple leotard-like outfit that revealed the upper parts of her cleavage and a .9mm handgun strapped to her side. A dangerous looking assault rifle lay next to her. "Be careful with that, Paiway! It hurts, you know"

"Just try to endure it for a bit longer." Paiway replied, adding more disinfectant. Fourteen years old, she wore an outfit which resembled, oddly enough, a French maid's uniform. Long black hair dangled from the sides of her hair in two ponytails.  
Nearby, Duelo hesitated. As an experienced doctor, he had been trained to give medical aid to anyone, regardless of who they might be. He debated with himself for a few moments before finally making his decision.

Meia peered into the darkness behind the shattered bulkhead.

"Jura, I'm going to look for Dita! Come with me."

The blonde-haired Jura sighed.

"See, this is exactly why I didn't want to take a trainee along with us on this mission."

Meia stared at her coldly.

"If you had a problem with it, you should have said so back at the base."

"Oh all right, I'm coming!"

On the old ship three more of the Mejale pirates entered a section which was like a sub-command bridge. As soon as they took off their helms and suits, they approached the consoles in front of them and began to access the data.

"Oh my! I can't read a single word of this!" This from a brown haired, gentle looking woman, named Ezra Veil, or just Ezra. One of her companions, a girl in pigtails wearing a large pair of glasses spoke up.

"Don't worry Ezra! I thought something like this might come up, so I created this!"

"What does it do?"

"It reads all known languages and translates them into one we can understand!" She turned to the third member of their party.

"I'll make one for you too, Commander-"

The member in question was already scrolling down the screens and downloading files as quickly as she could access them. With a silver mane of long hair that reached her waist, tanned skin and wearing a decidedly Arabian looking outfit which revealed her midriff and arms, she was the second in command of the pirates. She raised her communicator to her mouth and spoke into it.

"Have all of the enemies been immobilized? Good. Dump them."

"Huh? You already know how to read their language?!"

Ezra shrugged.

"Well, that's the elite for you, Parfait"

**Back at the pirate-controlled area...**

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? Get back in line!" A guard shouted as she spotted Duelo heading for some lockers.

Duelo ignored her, reached into his locker and retrieved his overcoat.

"Get back in the escape pod!"

"There's time enough for that later." He replied coolly.

"Do as you're told or I'll shoot you!" the pirate replied, leveling her rifle at him.

"I'm no threat to you."

His eyes flicked towards the injured women and the young nurse trying to attend to them.

"I happen to be a doctor."

The guard lowered her weapon and shared a nervous glance with her comrades. Paiway meant well, but the truth of the matter was that she simply didn't have the training or the experience to properly treat them. Plus, she was still only an apprentice nurse, after all. All of these reasons, however did nothing to make them feel any less uneasy about coming into contact with a Tarak man.

--

High above them, three stories up the wall, Axel Sixgun gave a wolfish smile and stared at the hole the teal haired woman and the loud blonde had gone down. Thanks to an unexpected turn of circumstances, he'd found a rather interesting shortcut to the reactor area. All he needed to do was follow that damn tunnel and he was as good as gone. He stepped away from the wall grating and started to move back along the service bridge when he suddenly stopped.

If the pirates' main force was down there...there was a good chance that indigo Dread's pilot would be there as well...For some reason, the thought of seeing her again seemed to exert an almost magnetic pull on him. He hesitated, glancing back at the grating. Strange as it seemed, at their last meeting, he'd felt an odd bond with the violet eyed beauty, as though she were a... kindred spirit... And not only that, but she seemed to be quite a capable fighter as well...

He straightened up, his flickering back and forth between the grating and the other end of the catwalk, torn between his choices.

After a few moments, he grinned and shook his head ruefully as he flicked away his cigarette.

"Man, what kind of a question is that?" He sighed and adjusted his eyepatch beneath his beret.

--

Below him...

"There, that should do it." Duelo smoothed down the edge of the bandage on Barnette's arm with the tip of his finger, satisfied with his work. With additional treatment, there shouldn't be any scarring to worry about either.

Taking the opportunity, he studied Barnette closely. Like most Tarak, he had never seen a Mejere in person before. They certainly didn't look anything like the monsters from the propaganda films, and was, despite some obvious...physical differences... human.

Barnette, noticing his scrutiny, glared at him.

"What?! Is there something you find interesting about me?"

Duelo smirked.

"Actually, yes there is." he replied.

A thought occurred to her. If this man was as observant as she thought, then perhaps...

"Well since you seem so interested, let me ask you a question."

Duelo was instantly on the alert.

"All right." He answered guardedly.

"Of the personnel onboard this ship, is there a man with orange hair among them? He wears a beret pulled down across his right eye like this and his hair hangs down a little on the left side." She demonstrated with her hands.

Duelo's eyes hardened.

"You know that man?" he asked.

"No, I just...saw him earlier. Why? Do you know who he is?" She asked suspiciously.

"No, I don't. I saw him earlier, but then he disappeared. I don't know where he came from or what his name was."

Barnette looked crestfallen, and then startled at herself for feeling that way.

'_What's wrong with me? He's a Tarak, my enemy! Why am I so interested in him?_' She thought back to their first meeting, remembering the feeling that had surged through her body when their eyes met, and the strange...sense...that they were similar in some way...

Duelo stared at her, intrigued, noting the various emotions crossing her face before a thought struck him.

"Come to think of it, I haven't seen him among the other prisoners your friends ejected..."

Barnette's eyes widened as she looked up at him.

_**That means he's still here!**_

She turned to call out a warning to her friends. Before she could do anything, the entire upper part of the opposite wall exploded outward in a cloud of dust and shattered metal plating.

From the center of the expanding cloud, a single figure hurtled downward, easily outstripping the falling debris. The wind rushing past his face, Sixgun gave a wild whoop of exhilaration and increased his speed, executing a series of acrobatic flips just for additional flair.

After all, if you're gonna make an entrance, you might as well make it one to remember!

He landed as lightly as a feather, on all fours, with a gracefulness that would have amazed an Olympic gymnast. The overall effect was only increased by the tremendous crash as the remains of the demolished wall slammed into the floor around him.

Duelo's eyes narrowed, as he tried to see through the smoke.

'_Jumping down three stories without a scratch...Could it be...?_'

Amidst the settling dust, the figure straightened up and gave a jaunty wave of his left hand, the other resting comfortably on his hip.

"Terribly sorry to bother you, ladies, but I've got some business to attend to on the lower decks. Unfortunately, you happen to be in my way, so if you wouldn't mind stepping aside for a bit, we can resolve this quite quickly. I don't plan to hurt any of you so..." he trailed off, hoping he'd read them correctly.

He wasn't disappointed.

Every available weapon the female corsairs had was trained on him almost immediately.

"Hold it right there! Don't come any closer or we'll shoot!"

As a response, Sixgun laughed wildly and launched himself forward with incredible acceleration, twin plumes of displaced air racing along the ground in his wake.

"Time for a little showing off! Heh-ha-haaaa!"

Almost immediately, the pirates opened fire on him. Barnette, who had been at the back with the other injured, finally managed to get herself around to the side, where she could get a clear shot at the intruder. Her assault rifle came up to fire but she almost dropped it in shock at the sight before her.

Twelve laser rifles locked onto him and firing nonstop, Axel Sixgun was having the time of his life. His trademark wild laughter ringing out over the gunfire, he was a whirlwind of movement, twisting, turning, somersaulting and ducking, evading every single shot with incredible speed and skill. She couldn't even see anything beyond the color of his uniform, everything else was blurred by the velocity.

Meanwhile, Sixgun contemplated his next move.

'_Let's see...I can keep doing this until they run out of ammunition, which would be pretty fun, but that might take too long considering I'm on a time limit here...Or I can just temporarily disable them now, pass them and find Edge. I wonder if that woman really is here...She should have recognized me by now. On the other hand, I haven't seen anyone with that appearance yet...Oh well._'

With that, he threw his arms out to the sides with a snap. Two dangerous-looking handguns launched into his waiting grip from concealed clamps up his sleeves. He spun them in his index fingers as he flipped backward over a series of shots, before he locked his grip securely around their handles and primed them.

"Well, it's been fun ladies, but I'm on a time limit here, so I can't afford to sit around all day! Time to wrap this up! Let's go! Dual Magnums!"

He launched himself sideways with a powerful kick to the ground, his favorite Magnum .44s blazing.

One by one the pirates cried out in surprise as a tremendous impact hit each of their weapons, tearing them out of their owner's grips and slamming them against the back wall, split in half and shattered into ruins.

Sixgun's face was serious. Even when it wasn't to kill, he hated shooting at women, especially in an unfair fight. As he skidded across the ground, decelerating, a gunshot rang out and he jerked his head sideways, a bullet slicing a narrow scratch across his cheek.

'_Sonofa_**BITCH**_! Someone else with solid firepower?! I thought I was the only one who could pull that off! They've got some skill too, dammit!_'

Both legs connecting solidly with the floor, he kicked off of it ferociously, rocketing for the source of the attack, Magnums extended out at his sides.

Atop one of the downed Vanguards, Barnette stared down the sights of her rifle, blasting off four-shot bursts at the rapidly approaching figure. Dammit, but this man was good! His skill was incredible, not to mention the extremely heavy firepower he was carrying in each hand. She leapt sideways as two shots screamed past her and blew craters in the wall. Of all of the old weapons she knew of, the Magnum series were the most powerful handguns ever created, and this man had two of them!

Sixgun reached the bottom of the Vanguard and leapt towards her, even as three more bullets hurtled towards him. One tore through the left side of his collar, but then it was over. He slammed into the ground in front of Barnette in a crouch, springing up at her. Even as she cursed in anger and readjusted her weapon's position, he caught the end of it in the curve of his left Magnum's grip, pushing it up. His right forearm slid across the base of the rifle, just in front of her trigger grip, locking the weapon's muzzle up at the ceiling.

'_How?!_' Barnette thought frantically as she struggled against his grip.

'_How did he beat me so easily?!_'

Sixgun smiled.

"You were good, I'll give you that. I didn't think there was anyone else still alive besides me who could wield that style of weaponry. Not bad, not bad at ..." The rifle shifted slightly, revealing his opponent's face, and the words died in his throat.

Barnette's grip went slack in shock, as the same electric feeling ran through her body.

They stared at each other for a full minute, neither moving, stunned.

Barnette finally recovered enough to speak

"Y-you...You're that guy from..."

Sixgun nodded weakly.

'Y-yeah. That indigo Dread... was you..." he finally managed to say.

The two of them were brought rudely back to earth by the shouts of one of Barnette's comrades.

"What are you waiting for Barnette?! Finish him off and let's get out of here!"

Both of them jerked visibly, suddenly remembering their situation. Strength suddenly surged back through their bodies as they struggled against each other, Sixgun holding back considerably, unwilling to use his full strength against Barnette. For some reason even he couldn't understand, he just could not fight her, despite her obvious skill!

Barnette, angry at herself for her own hesitation, had no such problem. Seeing the indecision in his blue eyes, and feeling the force of his block wavering, made her move. Pushing forward, she threw her entire body weight against him. Startled, Sixgun compensated with additional force, pressing harder. A split second later, she reversed her direction and used his own resistance to throw him past her.

Sixgun blinked in surprise as he felt his feet leave the ground.

'_My, quite talented, aren't you? Definitely worth keeping an eye on you..._'

Sixgun flipped twice in midair, easily dodging more bullets, and landed next to the downed blue Dread. He hit the ground in a crouch as two more whistled over his head, then straightened up and aimed both Magnums directly at Barnette, almost simultaneously with the leveling of her AK-47 at him.

He stared down the sights of his Magnums, eyes narrowed as they met Barnette's frustrated gaze. Reflexively his fingers tightened on the triggers, but stopped just before actually firing.

After a long pause, he closed his eyes and heaving an annoyed sigh, lowered the guns.

"Nope, can't do it. Sorry, but I don't much like shooting women."

Everyone else gaped at him. A Tarak who didn't kill Mejerans?! What the hell was this man?

Duelo suddenly noticed something else. When he had stopped speaking, the stranger's mouth had continued moving, meaning he had then said something that wasn't meant for them to hear. But then who was he talking to? A quick glance around gave him the answer.

Barnette glared at Sixgun, blushing bright red, while at the same time wondering why exactly she was doing so after his last remark.

Lowering his voice, he'd winked at her and finished his sentence.

"Especially one as beautiful and talented as yourself."

After a few seconds of embarrassment and confusion, she managed to respond.

"Just who are you anyway?"

Releasing his grip on the Magnums, Sixgun spun them once before he let the clamps in his sleeves pull them back up. With a cocky grin, he replied.

"The name is Sixgun, Angel. Axel Sixgun."

With that, he turned and started to walk towards the damaged bulkhead.

Barnette suddenly realized she was staring at him and blushed again before she suddenly realized he was escaping.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going? Stop or I'll shoot!"

Sixgun stopped, one hand resting on the rim of the hole. He glanced back over his shoulder at her, a strange smile playing on his lips.

"If you wanted to kill me, you'd have done it already, wouldn't you...?"

Barnette jerked as though someone had hit her. Angrily, she brought her gun back up to firing position and tightened her grip on the trigger. She held it there for a full minute, before she finally gave up and lowered it fractionally. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't force herself to shoot him. This man... Why?! Why did he affect her like this?! He was so damn annoying, and yet...and yet there was something about him...

"Don't feel too bad about it. When I think about it... if I had wanted to kill you before...I probably would have." He hesitated for a moment, staring at the floor, before his devil-may-care attitude returned. He glanced across at the nervous and angry female corsairs, most of whom had drawn close range weapons in the absence of their lasers, plus a few of those oh-so-annoying laser rings and smiled cheerfully.

"Thank you, thank you, you've been a wonderful audience! Now if you'll excuse me, I really must be going! Hey, you with the AK! You have a name? I'd like to remember one of the few talented female opponents I've fought in a long time! Or shall I just call you my Indigo Angel?"

Barnette, slightly dazed by his rapid change of topic, shook her head to recover and replied challengingly.

" My name is Barnette Orangello! Next time we meet, I won't go so easy on you, one-eye!"

His response startled her.

A sinister, almost terrifying smile crossed his features.

"Trust me, we'll meet again all right. And much sooner than you think...Heh-ha-haaa!"

Laughing wildly, he back-flipped into the darkness as several energy bolts struck the place he had been milliseconds earlier.

Barnette stared after him, a shadow crossing her features as she tried to figure out his parting words. She wasn't the only one, either. Nearby, a certain male doctor was also staring after Sixgun with considerable interest.

'_He seemed quite comfortable talking to the women, as if it were the most normal thing in the world...Could it be possible that he is actually from neither Tarak nor Mejere...? And just what did that last remark of his mean?_'

As Duelo and Barnette both speculated on the answer to that strange statement, it arrived much sooner than anyone would have liked...

Countless decks below them in the sub-bridge, Ezra gasped.

"Oh, my! There's a missile being locked onto us!"

Racing through the maze of catwalks, Axel Sixgun gave a feral smile. All hell was about to break loose in this sector, and he was going to be right in the middle of it.

Exactly where he always loved to be.

His wild laughter echoed off the walls long after he had blazed past them.

**Down in the reactor room...**

Meia looked around in annoyance as she walked across the network of bridges over the reactor.

"Where is Dita?!"

Jura sighed and leaned on the railing, looking over it to the ground six stories below.

"Well, we know she's in here. The lasers from her Dread made it here before the tunnel stops. Maybe she's wandering around exploring again."

"Wait...There's something there..."

Something glinted ahead of them, in the light of the reactor's glow. Meia's eyes narrowed in suspicion. As she got closer though, the shape of the object became more apparent, and her jaw dropped in amazement. Next to her, Jura gasped in shock.

"I-is that what I think it is...?"

In front of them, embedded solidly in the metal plating of the catwalk, was a huge sword, at least five feet long. A single triangular jetstone glittered in the center of the crosshilt, the pitch black jewel appearing to glow slightly.

"Wha...What the hell is this thing? No one can use something like this! ..." Jura paused for a moment and looked at it contemplatively.

"It's not half-bad looking though..."

Meia sighed.

"Jura, what's more important is how it got here in the first place. It definitely doesn't seem as though it belong here."

A new voice entered the conversation.

"Well, well, well. It seems like I didn't underestimate you after all."

Meia whipped around, her laser ring humming into life as she brought it up. Jura's hand flew to the hilt of her rapier as she turned to the source, and jumped in shock.

Less than six inches from where Meia's arms had been resting on the railing stood a man clad in the uniform of a Tarak officer, reclining back on the railing, supported by his elbows, a smoldering cigarette held loosely in his teeth.

Meia's mind raced.

'_How the hell did he get so close to me?! I didn't even sense his presence until he spoke to us!_'

"Who the hell are you?!" Jura demanded, clearly unnerved by the stranger's sudden appearance.

The stranger turned his head to face them, a friendly smile on his face. A beret pulled down at an angle covered his right eye while four spikes of orange hair overhung his blue left eye, which sparkled mischievously in the light from his cigarette.

"The name is Sixgun. Axel Sixgun. I believe you're looking for a red haired young girl around here? Name of Dita?"

Jura gasped.

"H-how'd you know?!"

Meia stared coldly at Sixgun.

"He probably overheard us while we were talking. If you could have gotten so close to us already, why haven't you tried to kill us?"

Sixgun blinked.

"Um... Why am I supposed to do that again?"

Meia stared at him, unsure of whether or not he was serious.

"You're from Tarak, aren't you? Mejerans like us are supposed to be your sworn enemies."

Sixgun stared blankly at her for a moment, and sighed.

'_Why in the name of all hell do I have to go through this with **EVERY **__FREAKING CHICK I MEET AROUND HERE?! First those nutcases upstairs and now this, jeez..._'

He recovered and smirked at them.

"Technically, that would be true, but only if I actually worked for Tarak in the first place."

Jura stared at him strangely.

"In that case, where exactly are you from, then? You sure look like a Tarak to me."

Sixgun executed a sweeping bow with a grin.

"As observant as ever, I see. Before that, however, since I've provided you with my name, could at least grant me the honor of knowing the name of a beautiful woman such as yourself?"

For the first time in her life, Meia was completely at a loss. This man was totally unpredictable and every time he said something, he changed the subject. As for him not being from Tarak, he was most likely lying. If he wasn't from Tarak, then how could he have gotten aboard this ship in that uniform in the first place? There was something dangerous lurking behind his carefree fa?de and she was certain it didn't bode well for either of them.

Jura however, was more than happy to accept the compliment, and a lot more besides.

"Well, Tarak or not you certainly know how to appreciate true beauty when you see it! I am Jura Basil Elden, the most beautiful and elegant of the pirates of Magno Vivan's crew!"

A bead of sweat ran down the side of Sixgun's face.

"Er...right. And you...?"

Meia started. He was looking at her expectantly. She looked at him suspiciously for moment before she replied.

"Meia Gisborne."

One deck up, a pair of eyes flickered open, one glowing a cybernetic red in the darkness.

Sixgun paused for a minute, an almost invisible shadow flitting over his features, before his cocky attitude returned.

"Heh, you're certainly a cold one. Don't like me very much, do you?"

"No, and I don't trust you either." Her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she glared at him. For the briefest moment, when he had heard her name, she could have sworn she'd seen a flicker of some unreadable emotion in his eyes. Almost as if he'd known that was her name and was expecting it.

Suddenly he spun around, looking intently down at the right entrance to the reactor room, five floors below. After a moment, he smirked.

"You're in luck. Your friend's headed this way now."

"How'd you know that?" Jura asked him eagerly.

Sixgun held up a finger and waited. Seconds later, a familiar voice floated up from below.

"Wait up Mr.Alien!"

"AAAAAHH! WHAT PART OF LEAVE ME ALONE DIDN'T YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

He smiled.

"Bingo."

Looking over the railing, they were rewarded by the sight of a panicking Hibiki fleeing from the missing Dita.

Sixgun smirked.

"Now that guy's a bonafide Tarak. You might want to catch her quickly. I highly doubt that Tarak Prime Minister's gonna wait for his torpedoes to finish fueling completely. I think there's a shortcut if you go that way which should lead you back to your Dreads."

Meia stared at him suspiciously.

"Why are you helping us?'

Sixgun looked at her seriously.

"I suppose you could say I'm a neutral third party here. I'm not interested in watching anyone die, whether they're from Tarak or Mejere."

Meia stared at him, for a moment, debating it. If he was right, then they needed as much time as they could get to reach their Dreads. Her sense of distrust fought with the need to get her comrades out as quickly as possible, before her concern for them finally won out.

"Alright." she said finally. "But you're leading us out."

Sixgun smirked.

"Suspicious as ever, I see. You really are a lot like my brother."

Meia's gaze flickered for a moment as she stared at him.

"Like your brother? What's that supposed to mean?"

Before Sixgun could reply, Jura broke in.

"You have a brother?"

Sixgun nodded.

"What? You didn't think I used that thing, did you?" He said, smirking as he indicated the sword.

Jura's jaw dropped.

"Your brother uses that-"

She was interrupted by Meia's sudden shout of warning. Mere moments afterward, something smashed through the wall above them with a tremendous crash of shattering metal.

A black figure jetted down towards them, cloak billowing out behind it like the wings of some fearsome bird of prey. Edge landed next to his blade with a light thump, straightening up, the other sword sheathed at his back. Without even pausing to acknowledge the presence of the three of them, he drew the missing weapon effortlessly from its prison with one hand and leapt catlike onto the railing, scaring Jura and startling Meia. He paused for a moment, his gaze flickering over the lower area.

For some reason, Meia felt something strange pass through her body at the sight of this man, a terrible, dark feeling of nothingness and pain...while at the same time, feeling as though she knew him, somehow...

After a few seconds of watching Hibiki run around in circles, Edge made his decision. With a swift motion, he pulled back his arm and launched his sword downwards. It struck the ground a few metres ahead of Hibiki who screeched to a halt, startled. Before it had even reached the floor, Edge had leaned forward and, kicking off of the underside of the railing, shot after the flying sword.

Jura gasped in horror.

"Is he mad?! There's no way he can survive a fall like that!"

Meia found herself tensing up with a sudden anxiety for the stranger.

'_Wh-what? Why am I feeling this way? Why do I care what happens to him?_'

Next to her, Sixgun stared intently at the teal-haired woman, his expression unreadable.

'_She definitely looks like her, and the similarity between the two names is too much to be a simple coincidence. Could it be...?_'

Below them, Edge landed, slamming into the floor with an almighty crash, the impact shattering the deck plating around him. Hibiki gave a yell as the force knocked him off his feet and he slammed down hard. Behind him, Dita stumbled slightly, but kept her balance, snapping pictures madly.

"Is that another alien?"

Above her, Meia's eyes widened in shock, as she saw movement inside the cloud of settling smoke. At the same time however, a strange feeling of relief washed over her In the center of the impact crater, Edge straightened up, completely unfazed by the tremendous impact, which would have killed any normal person two times over. Spotting Hibiki, he pulled his sword out of the ground and started moving rapidly towards him, sheathing it on his back as he did so.

"Dammit, man! Were you trying to kill me just now?! That sword of yours missed me by a couple inches!"

Ignoring Hibiki's ranting, Edge blew past him, grabbing him by the back of the collar as he did so, yanking him off his feet as he continued running. Glancing back briefly at the red haired girl Edge noted that she'd stopped and was busily snapping pictures of him. Good. One less problem to deal with. His brother would take care of her and the other two...

Edge's body went rigid with shock and he jerked to a stop. Hibiki looked up at him angrily.

"Hey! What's wrong with you?! Put me--" He stopped abruptly at the look on Edge's face.

Edge looked as if he'd just seen a ghost. Slowly he turned his head to look up at the level he'd left his brother on.

Sixgun, his face grim, stared down at where his brother had suddenly stopped.

'_So he's noticed it too, and just from the corner of his eye. I'm not surprised... It would affect him much more than me. She meant a lot more to him, after all..._'

He glanced across at Meia, who had stiffened as her eyes met Edge's.

Across the distance, the two stared at each other, the teal haired Dread commander and the dark, enigmatic swordsman. For a second, time seemed to slow down for them, as they gazed across the divide, Meia's icy eyes softening slightly, for a reason unknown even to her.

For a brief moment, Edge's cold fa?de shattered. He tried to speak, but his voice failed him.

'_That...face...It...It couldn't be..._'

His mouth finally formed the word he had sworn never to speak again, the name of a woman from long ago...

"M...Mai..a...?"

Hibiki looked up at him, annoyed.

"Come on, Edge! We don't have time to stand around staring! Let's go!"

Edge started, Hibiki's voice bringing him sharply back to reality. His features hardened again as he managed to regain control of himself. Turning, he swept out of the room, Hibiki close behind him. He hesitated for a second at the exit, struggling with himself, before he managed to force himself to continue moving.

'_That is not...her. It cannot be. They may look similar, but it cannot be her! I thought I could not be affected by anything in this world again, but..._'

Edge's jaw tightened. This was not the time for such thoughts. He shook his head, as if to dislodge them, and increased his pace.

Before, as Edge recovered and hid his shock behind his cold features again, Meia jerked, snapping out of whatever spell had been keeping her staring at him. She turned away at the same time he did, concealing her emotions behind the neutral expression she always wore.

"All right. Now that they are gone, we'd better head down and get Dita before anything else happens." She motioned to Sixgun with her laser ring.

"Lead the way. Quickly."

Sixgun laughed and shrugged casually.

"You two really are just like each other."

Meia's eye twitched. There it was again!

"I don't have time for this. Move."

Sixgun sighed.

"Well, I guess you're right. Buut since, as you say, we're short on time..."

He gave a devilish grin and whipped out his right hand. It glowed for a moment, and a huge gun appeared, covering it.

"Let's take the fastest way outta here!"

"No!" Meia shouted, suddenly realizing his plan. Sixgun pointed the gun straight down and pulled the trigger once. In a huge blast, the entire catwalk disintegrated beneath them along with every other one that was below it.

Jura shrieked in terror as she felt the ground give way. Meia had barely enough time to curse her mistake before she too fell.

Suddenly a strong arm wrapped itself around her waist and Axel Sixgun reappeared, holding both herself and the still-screaming Jura.

"Heh-hah-haaa! Don't worry about a thing ladies! I'm here, so just sit back and enjoy the ride! Woohaaaa!"

Kicking away any threatening debris, he landed perfectly. Deposting the two women next to him on the ground, he dismissed his shotcannon weapon and snapped out his Magnums.

"You might want to watch your heads." He winked cockily at them, pointed his Magnums upwards, and without looking up even once, blasted away every piece of falling debris with a blitzkrieg of shells.

Meia stared upwards in disbelief. This man...Sixgun...had just completely and utterly destroyed a little less than ton of falling metal with nothing more than a pair of solid projectile handguns! If he had seriously wanted to kill them before, there was no possible way that they would have been alive now.

Sixgun brought his arms back down and inspected his smoking guns.

"Hmm. I'll need to adjust the sights on this one. It's off by a couple milli's."

So saying, he ejected the spent, steaming cartridges with a metallic sounding click, and twirled them once before he pulled the weapons back into his sleeves. He offered a hand to Meia.

"You did say you didn't have much time, after all." He grinned smugly.

She slapped his hand away in irritation.

"I can stand just fine on my own, thank you." She managed to stand up, just as Dita ran past.

"Wait Mr.Alien! I want to talk to you!"

Meia caught her with a flying tackle.

"Dita! You know better than to wander off from the group!"

"Ah! M-Meia! I-I'm sorry. It's just that-"

Meia cut her off.

"We don't have time for this. You, lead the way." She said, pointing at Sixgun with her laser ring. He sighed and scratched his head.

"You know, even if you shoot me with that thing, it won't affect me. Besides, I already proved I don't mean any harm by saving you from falling."

"That was your fault in the first place." Meia pointed out.

He winced.

"Ouch. Fair enough. Shall we go then?" He inclined his head towards the exit.

Meia nodded.

"Jura, keep an eye on Dita. I'll go in front with him. Let's go."

"Emm... Meia?" Dita asked worriedly.

"What is it now, Dita?"

"I think Jura fainted." Dita poked the motionless blonde a few times for good measure.

A bead of sweat ran down Sixgun's neck.

"Er...Now that you mention it, I thought she seemed a bit limp when I dropped her off..."

Meia's patience snapped.

"Enough! You, carry Jura. Dita, let's go."

"R-roger!"

Sixgun rolled his eyes.

"Ahh, screw this!"

Before Meia could stop him, he'd jumped forward, tossed Jura over his left shoulder, scooped her up in his right arm, and deposited Dita on his back.

"Hang on! Now for some real speed!"

In the backs of his calves, a pair of concealed panels snapped open and powerful thrusters roared into life.

Meia stared at him in disbelief and amazement.

"What the hell are you?!"

"He's a really cool alien!" Dita chirped happily.

Sixgun's smile faltered for a second.

"Uh...What the kid said." He crouched down for a second as the power began to build up.

"Time to go! MAGNION BOOSTERS!"

He shot upwards, a streak of orange energy trailing behind him like an afterimage.

Moments later...

"BC! Where are you?" Magno barked.

"We're all aboard, except for Meia's squad!" her second in command replied.

"Let them escape on their Dreads! We need to get out of here now!"

"Roger!" BC switched to another channel. "Meia! What's your status?"

Meia coughed as the dust cleared.

"We're fine! I have all of the others with me now and we're at our Dreads."

Jura had recovered after they had smashed through the wall and was dizzily making her way into her Dread's cockpit, accompanied by a non-stop stream of complaints.

Dita was heading for her own Dread, eagerly looking around for any of the 'Mr.Aliens'.

None of them noticed, that in all of the chaos, Sixgun had slipped away.

On the opposite end of the hangar, the missing Sixgun was racing along the holding bays lining the opposite wall, his eyes scanning the designation numbers printed on the doors.

'_Where in the hell are those two Vanguards? V-351...V-352...V353... Heere we go._'

As her cockpit dome locked into place, a sudden explosion on the left drew Meia's attention. Two figures appeared, moving rapidly out of the cloud towards them. One was the man Dita had been chasing, and the other...

Edge skated to a halt and glanced around. Hibiki, spotting the Vanguard bearing his mark, bolted for it. Seconds later, two Vanguard holding bays exploded outwards to reveal their motionless occupants. A familiar voice called out from atop one of them.

"Yo, Edge! About time you made it to the party! I got our rides right here! Mission accomplished, so we are outta here!"

Edge barely heard him. His crimson irises were locked onto a pair of teal ones that met his frosty glare with an equally cold one. Neither of them realized it, but the flicker of uncertainty they saw in the other's features was their own.

Dita's panicked cry tore their gazes away from each other.

"Help! My Dread's stuck and I can't move!"

Jura was frantic.

"Meia, come on! We can't wait any longer!

Meia hesitated, reluctant to leave a comrade behind to die, not to mention the black swordsman...

Suddenly, several things happened at once.

Even before she had finished speaking, Edge was in motion. In one fluid action, he drew both swords from his back and raised them to an attack position.

Seconds before he struck, Dita cried out again in desperation.

"Somebody help me please!"

As the wall shattered under Edge's fierce attack, a new light shone through.

The Paexis Pragma had heard Dita's cry.

Almost simultaneously, both Muramasa struck their targets in a tremendous explosion. On the Ikazuchi, the Axel brothers were blasted backwards by a powerful force, each crashing into one of the Vanguards Sixgun had freed.

The blue aura enveloped the entire region of space around the Ikazuchi, disrupting the fabric of time and space and disappearing into a wormhole, dragging the pirate vessel with it.

Some distance away, the Prime Minister of Tarak stared grimly where the proud Ikazuchi had once stood, the explosion fading.

"I hope you women enjoy the taste of defeat."

At the center of the maelstrom, the six who had remained on the Ikazuchi were overwhelmed by the awesome forces unleashed by the Paexis. The shimmering blue aura engulfed them completely, stripping away their surroundings.

Hibiki looked around wildly before something caught his attention.

Barely visible through the haze that surrounded him he made out the outline of a giant machine, a mecha like nothing he'd ever seen before.

"Wha...What is that?!"

And then suddenly he was falling, falling... The last thing he heard before he blacked out was Dita screaming in panic.

Meia managed to stay conscious longer than most of them. Around her she could sense the others, falling, like her.

Suddenly, a blur of silver caught her eye.

In front of her, a strange silver-white mecha stared back at her, a large four-legged dragon with a massive wingspan. An alien intelligence burned in its eyes as it looked at her. Then it nodded once, and faded away.

The last thing she saw before she slipped into darkness, was a black figure reaching her, and felt a strong pair of arms wrap around her, bringing a strange sense of security and protection with it...

Edge glanced down at the unconscious woman in his arms, an unreadable expression on his face. He looked upward, at the emptiness below, and his eyes narrowed.

On the edges of perception, he saw something... Something huge, a being that defied any sense of comprehension.

And he knew it had seen him in turn. It saw them all, the Ikazuchi, the pirates, and everyone else caught by the Paexis.

And it laughed.

Then there was a huge white flash, and darkness claimed him.


	3. 2:And now

Chapter 2 And...Now I've Lost My Way.

In an empty region of space, far from Tarak or Mejere, there was a flash of brilliant color. The fabric of space itself shifted for a brief moment, tearing apart. It spat out two vessels, along with a variety of space debris and the superheated remains of an explosion.  
On the bridge of the pirate ship, Magno Vivan stirred.

"Uuuhh...This doesn't look like the afterlife. Where the hell are we?"

The bridge controllers groaned as they came to their senses.

The yellow-haired Belvedere was first to respond.

"Checking sensors now- Aaah!"

The ship rocked violently as something hit it. Magno looked up in surprise, to witness an incredible sight.

Directly above them, the main spherical section of the Ikazuchi was shooting out tendrils of pure green energy, latching themselves onto any material around and drawing it into the ship. Unfortunately, this also included the pirate vessel.

"What's going on? Is the crystal trying to eat the ship or something?!"

On the Ikazuchi, at Ground Zero...

Jura woke up. Rubbing her head, she looked around in annoyance.

"Owww! What happened? Did I hit my head on something in the explosion, or..." she trailed off as she suddenly became aware of her surroundings.

"Wh-what the...Where am I? What's going on? Where's everybody else? Am I the only survivor? What is this place?!"

She would have continued on descending into hysteria, had it not been for Dita's interruption.

"Heyy, Jura! I'm over here!"

"Dita! Someone else survived! I'm not doomed!" There was a moment's pause.

"What happened to you? I thought you were stuck!"

"Something went BEEP and then something went KRRSLASH and I dunno what happened! Alien technology is sooo amazing!" Dita replied happily.

Jura looked at her strangely.

"Did you get hit in the head or something?"

"Nope!" Dita replied deliriously.

Jura sighed. Suddenly she realized something.

"Hey... Where's Meia and that insane guy with the guns?"

Looking around, the only other person she saw was the boy dressed in orange lying unconscious nearby. There was no sign of Meia or Sixgun anywhere.

Neither was there any sign of Edge...

Magno nodded as she received her Registry Chief's report.

"So we can't detach the two ships from the inside or with the laser, correct?"

Gascogne Rheingau nodded on the screen.

"Exactly. I had no idea the crystal had this much power."

"I see..." Magno closed her eyes for a moment.

"All right. There's nothing else for it then. We've gotta get rid of it at the source. BC! Parfait! I'm going up! You two come with me!"

"Roger!"

Moments later, a small shuttle launched out from the pirate ship, heading up.

Elsewhere...

In another dim corridor somewhere on the Ikazuchi, Meia stirred.

"O-oww... What happened...?" She pushed herself up on an elbow. To her surprise, she felt a strange silken material beneath her fingers instead of solid ground.

"What...?" She opened her eyes, still a bit dazed from the effects of the Paexis warp, to find herself millimeters away from a pair of slightly less dazed crimson eyes. She stayed like that for a moment, confused, before her eyes widened in shock, reality hitting her like a bolt of lightning.

She was stretched full-length on top of the dark swordsman from earlier, her hand resting on his chest, some of his cloak's material still grasped in her fingers. Realization must have struck him simultaneously as his eyes widened slightly, his body tensing.

There was a rapid blur of movement. The next second, they were both standing upright several metres apart from each other. Meia's ring glowed menacingly while Edge had his fingers wrapped tightly around the grip of a sword. After a few moments, Edge slowly straightened up, his eyes locked firmly on Meia's.

"Take your hand off that sword, now. I won't hesitate to shoot otherwise." Meia said flatly.

In response to her threat, Edge started moving towards her, his grip lessening only slightly.

Meia's eyes narrowed.

"Fine. Have it your way."

She fired once, a warning shot. It flashed past the left side of Edge's face. A few strands of dark hair floated down, sliced off by the beam. He ignored it, his eyes still fixed on Meia.

Meia's jaw tightened. Something had stopped her from killing this man outright, but now it was either her life or his, and Meia knew which she would choose.

The second laser struck Edge in the chest, mere centimeters to the left of the heart.

And rebounded straight back at her.

Meia's eyes widened in shock.

"What-?!"she gasped in shock, before the beam struck her left shoulder, burning a pencil sized hole straight through it. Edge's eyes widened slightly. He hadn't expected the angle of reflection to be that small!

Meia stumbled back. Her left arm hung useless at her side, blood trickling down it from the wound. She raised her still functioning right arm, the laser ring still pointing at the motionless Edge, her face tight with pain.

'D-damn...! His cloak reflected my laser! What...What kind of technology-ngh!- is that...?'

She staggered back another step. Instead of the metal floor, however, her foot landed on a patch of brittle, glassy crystal. It shattered easily and she slipped, losing her balance. She gave a cry of alarm as she started to fall.

The next moment, there was a dark blur of motion and she felt her body stop. She looked up in amazement to find Edge right in front of her, one arm curled supportively around her back, the other resting on her right shoulder.

How did he move so fast?! Meia thought frantically.

Again they paused, staring into each other's eyes.

Edge's expression barely flickered as he felt the hard metal circle of her energy ring press into his chest. In his rush to catch Meia, his cloak had shifted slightly on the left, revealing a gap a few inches wide, enough for Meia to press her ring in. She glared up at Edge.

"I'll bet this layer isn't reflective. Give up now. I won't miss from this range."

Edge looked down at her, his cold demeanor betraying not even a hint of his thoughts.

Then, slowly, he took his hand off of her shoulder. But instead of setting her down and backing away, like Meia expected, his hand clamped around her wrist, pressing the ring harder against his chest.

"What?! What are you-" Before Meia could finish the sentence, she felt him pressing on her thumb, the firing stud beneath depressing slightly under the added pressure. Her eyes widened in shock.

Before she could stop him, Edge fired the ring.

The pencil thin beam of light passed cleanly through his body, and hit the roof behind him, where it died off. His face tightened slightly for a moment, his body tensing.

After a few seconds, he relaxed, and moved his eyes back to Meia's wide, shocked ones. She stared at him, stunned.

"A-a shot like that should be fatal...!", she whispered in amazement, "How are you still..." . She trailed off as she felt his hand move again. Gently he moved her hand away from his chest, revealing the wound left by the shot. He released her wrist and brought his hand back up to the injury. The edges of the hole glowed a faint purple in response, and before Meia's complete shock, they slowly shrank in towards each other and disappeared in a flicker of light.

"You...you just...! H-how did you do that...?" she gasped, her fingers touching the spot. There wasn't even the slightest hint of an injury left!

'That's impossible!' She thought, as Edge lowered her to the ground. 'No-one can heal that quickly! He should be dead!' Her shoulder, forgotten by the shock, throbbed, bringing her sharply back to reality. She clutched at it, a slight gasp of pain escaping her. She looked up, to see Edge crouched next to her, watching her intently.

"What do you want?" She growled, suddenly angry at herself. "Finish me off."

To her surprise, Edge spoke, his voice steady.

"Your shoulder. Let me see it."

"You can talk?" Meia said, startled.

Edge nodded, and indicated her shoulder again. She looked down at it and, hesitantly, pulled her hand away. Edge brought up his right hand and held it a few inches above her injured shoulder. It glowed briefly, with a faint blue aura.

'What is that?' Meia thought.

Edge reached out and pressed his glowing hand against her shoulder. Meia hissed and shut her eyes as a sharp, icy feeling stabbed through her body. She clutched instinctively at Edge's hand, prising it off slightly. Edge blinked as he stared down at it, the touch bringing back memories of a woman long since gone.

Memories that he thought he had buried a long, long time ago...

He gritted his teeth, his hand tightening involuntarily as he fought them down. A few moments later, he allowed her to pull his hand away from the injury.

Meia looked down at the wound left by the laser and her eyes widened. The edges of the cut were glowing with the same violet light as the one she had seen when the swordsman had healed earlier. Just like before, the glowing edges closed in towards each other and sealed themselves off, the fading glow leaving nothing behind, the skin unblemished. Meia flexed her fingers experimentally. There was no pain, the arm was as good as new.

'How is this...possible?' she thought, amazed. She looked up at the dark swordsman gazing down at her, his face unreadable.

There was more to this man than first met the eye, she decided. He was definitely like no-one else she'd ever met, that was for sure.

Abruptly, his eyes left hers for a moment, shifting downwards slightly. Following his gaze, she realised her hand was still on his, their fingers loosely interwoven. Her eyes widened in surprise and pulled her hand free. Edge blinked, a strange, distant expression flitting across his face for a second, before he stood up. To her horror and complete surprise, Meia found that she was blushing. Confused, and slightly annoyed, she ignored his proffered hand, preferring to stand on her own. She averted her face, willing the heat in her cheeks to disappear before she faced Edge. There was a question she had to ask.

"Why did you help me? I'm your enemy."

To her surprise, the swordsman shook his head.

"No. My fight is not with any aboard this ship."

"Wh-what? Then what are you doing here, if you didn't plan to fight us?"

He hesitated for a second. He seemed slightly...awkward, Meia realised.

"There was...a slight...miscalculation on my brother's part." There was something about his tone that suggested that continuing this line of questioning would be a bad idea. Meia changed tact. As near as she could tell, he was speaking the truth, not to mention, he could very easily have killed her earlier and then laid waste to the entire ship before anyone knew he was here...

"Alright. So shall we call a truce for now?"

Edge nodded.

"My comlink's malfunctioning, so I'll have to take you to the bridge myself. Come with me. The captain will have to decide what to do with you." Inwardly, Meia sighed, wondering why on Mejere she was even trusting this man.

As they started off, Edge's eyes flickered sideways to the woman walking next to him and steeled himself. There was something he had to find out...

"Your name."

Meia paused, surprised.

"What?" She asked, startled.

"What is your name?"

"...Meia. Meia Gisborne." Meia replied, cautiously. This had never happened before.

Edge's insides froze solid, his body going rigid. Her name cut through his subconscious like a knife, an echo of a name he would never forget, for a single day in his cursed existence.

"...Maia...Isthorne..." he whispered.

Meia looked back at him.

"What did you say?"

Edge shook his head. "Never mind." He said, only the slightest hint of a tremor in his voice.

"Come on. We have a long way to go." Without waiting for a response, she turned and continued walking. Trust or not, with more people around, she'd feel safer. Something about this man made her uneasy...

Edge stayed where he was for another second before he moved after her. His face had hardened into a cold, emotionless mask again, his turbulent emotions hidden beneath it as he regained control.

'Interesting...' he thought.

Somewhere else on the Ikazuchi...

The exit ramp for the shuttle lowered with a hiss of escaping air, touching down with a crunch on the crystal lined floor. Magno stepped out, adjusting her cloak as the cooler air hit her, followed by BC and some other members of her crew.

"Amazing." She remarked as she looked around at the Paexis' handiwork.

"I'll say!" Jura chimed in. "One minute we were in our Dreads and then the next there was a strange green light! The next thing I know, I'm waking up in this scary looking place! And I can't find Meia either!"

Magno sighed inwardly.

"All right Jura, calm down. I'm sure she can't be too far away. Her last report said something about some strange men with you."

Before Jura could reply, a sound of static caught Magno's attention. Turning her head in the direction of the sound, her eyes fell on the still out cold Hibiki and the inoperative Navi-bot.

"Huh. So this is a man, is it? It's been a while since I saw one of them. Were their faces really this funny-looking? I'll assume this is one of the men you mentioned a moment ago, right?"

Jura hesitated.

"Well yeah, in a way. Dita was chasing him, that's why we couldn't find her. But I don't think that's who Meia meant. There were two other guys, who were really, really scary and really, really strong! One of them met us in the reactor room before we found Dita. He was weird-looking, with orange hair and a hat pulled over the right side of his face." She paused for a minute to catch her breath, almost becoming hysterical after she remembered the terrifying moment when he had blown up the catwalk.

"AND HE WAS COMPLETELY INSANE! He almost got us killed!"

Magno stared at her for a moment, wishing there was somebody else she could have gotten a more comprehensible version from.

Suddenly a new, indignant voice spoke up.

"Hey, I resent that. Is that any way to talk about someone who saved your life?"

Jura gave a yelp of fear and dove behind Magno for protection.

"Eeeep! That's him!"

Dita was ecstatic.

"Wow, another alien made it! Hey, where are you, Mister Alien?"

There was an exasperated groan.

"I told you already, the name is Axel Sixgun, dammit! Or even just Sixgun! Not 'Mr. Alien', alright?!"

"Okay, Mr. Alien!" Dita chirped happily.

In the darkness, Sixgun banged his head against a chunk of crystal in exasperation.

Magno smirked.

"Okay, 'Sixgun'. I must ask you, are you an enemy? Because if you are, I believe we outnumber you."

Sixgun laughed.

"Ha! No offense, old lady, but like I told Blondie and her friend earlier, if I was an enemy, you'd all have been dead long ago, numbers or no numbers."

"Interesting. So then if you don't intend to fight us, why don't you show yourself?"

There was a long moment of silence.

When Sixgun spoke up again, his voice sounded awkward, almost embarrassed.

"Erm... ah-heh, well, you see, uh...I'm kind of in the middle of something here, so if you'd just wait a couple-grrr- seconds-dammit- I'll be right there, heh."

Magno raised an eyebrow as some of the other pirates looked at each other with confused glances.

There was the sound of struggling and someone swearing repeatedly. After a few moments of this...

"Oh for the love of - TO HELL WITH THIS! CHEW ON THIS YA STUPID PIECE OF CRAP! MAGNION SHOTCANNONS!"

There was a bright flash, and a tremendously loud blast, like the sound of several hundred weapons firing simultaneously. As the smoke from the explosion reached the startled pirates, a titanic block of crystal, weighing at least a ton, hurtled through the air above them, flying off into the recesses of the cavern. Many of them watched it go past, open-mouthed in amazement.

There was the sound of booted footsteps crunching over crystals and Axel Sixgun strode out of the cloud of debris with a cocky smirk on his face, devil-may-care swagger and his tremendous right-hand shotcannon slung over his shoulder.

He came to a stop a few feet away from Magno and flicked away his bangs. He gave an apologetic grin.

"Heh, sorry about that. Stupid crystal dropped about two tons of rock on me and I got sick of pushing it off." He glanced around at the shocked stares of Magno's crew, excluding Magno herself, who still seemed unimpressed, and Dita, who was prancing about in delight and snapping pictures as fast as she could press the button.

"Er... What's with them?"

"I don't think they're used to two tons of crystal being shot across a room like a pebble. You must admit, your entrance was a bit excessive." Magno replied dryly.

Sixgun stared at her. Then he stared at the others. He spun around for a second, double-checking that they had seen the same thing, before turning back to them with an incredulous expression.

"You call THAT excessive?! Are you kidding?!" he demanded, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "Hell, I didn't even cause an explosion or anything! Jeez." He paused for a moment.

"Where the heck is this, anyway?"

Magno sighed.

"I was hoping you could tell me. It seems that the Paexis didn't take too kindly too being shot at by your missiles. It transported us somewhere in space and is now trying to consume our ship. We came up here to put a stop to it and found you instead. Speaking of which..." She was cut off by Dita.

"Hey! Mr. Al- I mean, Mr. Sixgun! Do you know where that other alien who was with you went?"

Sixgun stared at her for a moment, baffled.

"Other alien?"

Magno nodded curtly.

"Yes. My squadron leader who was there reported three of you. One was that boy over there," she indicated Hibiki, "one was you... and there was one other, who I have yet to hear anything about."

Jura, who had by this time had recovered her composure, joined the conversation.

"You know, the scary looking guy dressed in black, with the two big swords?"

Sixgun's expression cleared.

"Ohhh, you mean my brother! You calling him an alien kind of threw me off"  
He looked around for a moment, a frown crossing his face.

"Hey, damn. Where the heck did he end up anyway?"

A sudden suspicion crossed his mind. He searched through the assembled pirates as they stared suspiciously back at him, Hibiki and Unit-one being taken off to a holding cell somewhere. Sixgun groaned silently. The teal haired Meia was nowhere to be seen. And if those two were missing, chances were good that there was going to be a lot of trouble if they met up. Especially after what he'd seen during the fall. He smacked his forehead.

"Hoo boy. I can't wait to see the look on his face when he wakes up." he muttered.

"Well?" Magno asked. "Where's your brother then?"

Sixgun muttered a few profanities under his breath before responding.

"I think, considering my current run of luck and the way things have been going, you'll probably find my brother and Miss Gisborne in the same area. This Paexis crystal doesn't seem to have sent us very far apart. Beyond that, I know as much as you do. I'm more concerned with where we go after this."

Magno raised an eyebrow.

"And what do you mean by that?"

Sixgun shrugged. "From what I've seen of your whole bloody system, men and women apparently hate each other with a passion. Now that you've got a couple of them trapped on your ship of..." he paused for a moment, calculating. "Oh, say a hundred or so women, what exactly do you plan to do with them?"

Magno smirked. "I have a few options open to me. You don't seem to consider yourself in the same position as them though. Neither do you seem to be too concerned about being this close to a monster, as your Tarak propaganda describes us. Why is that?"

Sixgun jerked, caught off-guard by the question. He hastily scrambled to come up with a plausible-sounding excuse, especially since that scary-looking BC woman was coming back towards him.

"Er...Oh, that, well..."

He was saved by a beeping sound in his internal radar system.

"Uh, hang on a sec Miss Magno..." Quickly, he checked the detection system.

His eyes narrowed.

"The hell...?!" He muttered. He checked and rechecked the coordinates his bio-logic system was giving him.

"Oookay. Miss Magno and miss, er...BC, was it?... You might want to head up to the Ikazuchi section with your crew. As far as I can tell, the Paexis has pretty much rerouted all of your ship's controls to there, so it's now useless to head back down to your ship. I...may not be coming with you. I've got some investigating to do around here. I don't think this is all the crystal did. I'll get in touch with you there."

BC was taken aback.

"How on earth did you find all of that out?! Is this your brother's doing?"

"Nah, not my brother. Right now it doesn't really matter, though. So now, if you don't mind, I'd better be going. I'll use the communications system (assuming the damn thing still works, of course) to contact you on the bridge with what I've found out. See ya."

He turned to walk away. BC's eyes narrowed.

"You're not going anywhere." She said coldly. At a gesture, a dozen pirates leveled their weapons at Sixgun. She smirked.

"You must be joking. Do you really think we'd let a man run amok through the ship without knowing his whereabouts? You're going to be joining the rest of your kind in the brig. Lock him up-?!" She stopped suddenly, as Magno cut her off with an upraised hand.

"Let him go, BC."

"Wh-what?! Captain...!"

Magno gave a grim smile.

"BC, do you really think you can stop him with our weapons? You saw what he did earlier, didn't you?" She turned back to Sixgun, who had remained motionless, looking back over his shoulder at them.

"You plan to go ahead regardless, don't you." It was more of a statement than a question. Sixgun shrugged and gave a rueful smile.

"You're as sharp as I thought. Yeah, that's the plan. So what do you say? Shall we call a cease-fire for now?" he asked quietly.

"Do I really have a choice?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that, heh. Well, I'll be going now. Catch ya on the bridge!"

BC sighed. She knew the captain was right, but it didn't make it any easier watching a potential enemy just walk away.

"Alright, fine. Lower your guns. Let's head up to the bridge. And Sixgun..."

"Hm?"

"Try anything funny and I won't hesitate to take you out, even if it means venting your section of the ship. Understand?" Magno's eyes were cold as ice. Sixgun nodded, his face deadly serious.

"Understood."

He moved away from them, accelerating. Another beep gave him the message he was waiting for. With a smirk, he kicked off the ground.

"MAGNION THRUSTERS! Full Throttle!" he roared. The concealed panels in his legs snapped open and his boosters howled into life. He hurtled across the floor heading for a gigantic pillar that stretched from floor to ceiling. Without stopping he rocketed up the side of it, aiming for the ceiling. Blasting through it, he disappeared from sight.

Magno stared after him for a few moments, before she shook her head and sighed.

"Young people these days. So reckless."

"Captain, are you sure that was a good idea? Won't the rest of the crew have a problem with him?"

"I doubt they'll even catch a glimpse of him, but you can warn them, just to be on the safe side."

BC nodded. She turned to the rest of the waiting pirates.

"Okay. We need to get to the main bridge now. Parfait, take your engineers and get down to the crystal chamber. We need to stop the fusion before it gets out of hand."

Parfait nodded and hurried off, a few armed pirates going along in case of trouble.

"Everyone else, we're heading to the bridge. Move it!"

The group moved off, a few members looking around nervously for anything else hiding in the shadows.

Sixgun raced along the ventilation network of the Ikazuchi's old section, muttering to himself.

"Damn it all! I've never miscalculated this badly before! There's something else at work here. I know my sensors can't be that far out of calibration, but there's something very wrong with the navigation signals I'm getting. I just hope I'm wrong about where I think we are..." He put on an added burst of speed, his face grim as he raced off.

Not far from the Ikazuchi, three objects moved through space, their engine radiation dampened, to avoid giving away their presence. They were strangely shaped with a flat, square upper surface and a stalk jutting downwards from the center of the square. Attached to the stalk were a pair of tentacle-like arms ending in a razor sharp manipulator talon. At the end of the stalk, there were four more appendages, acting as stabilizers and additional manipulators. A single green 'eye' glowed at the front corner of the square.

Upon sighting the Ikazuchi, however, they came to a dead stop. They looked at it for a moment, recording the parameters of the strange vessel, before their AI processors came to a decision. In a high frequency burst of sound, a message was sent.

Much further away, something received the message. Powerful engines rumbled into life, as the dark shape began to move in a new direction. The smaller machines, their immediate task completed, waited, their green eyes locked onto the Ikazuchi...

Somewhere else in the crystal covered wasteland, Bart yelped and dove aside as a huge chunk of crystal narrowly missed crushing him.

"What the hell is goin' on?! That wasn't funny!" He yelled, crawling backwards. Suddenly, he felt his back bump up against something. Dreading the answer, he looked up to find out what it was, and found himself staring down the barrel of a laser rifle, held by a dangerous looking woman with silver hair. He grinned nervously.

"Uh, h-hi there!"

BC smirked.

"I thought I heard a rat crawling around back here. Get up! You're coming with me."

"Wh-whatever you say!"

In the Medical Bay...

Barnette pounded angrily on the glass of the shower room, icy water drenching her from the showers lining the wall.

"PAIWAY! Let us out of here! We're freezing!"

Outside the shower, Paiway ignored them completely, writing in her notebook.

"Not until all the male germs are gone! Even in times of crisis the teen idol Paiway does not lose her cool!"

In the darkness in the ventilation shafts above them, something moved. Red eyes narrowed as electronic senses detected their prey. It settled down to wait, content with the guarantee of an easy meal...

'Soon...'

In another section of the newly fused ship...

"We all heard that the Paexis was a powerful source of energy, but we had no idea it could do this to a ship!" Ezra commented, checking star positions on her viewfinder. Next to her Dita lounged against the railing, looking up at the view above them.

"It's the aliens' power, Ezra! I wonder if I could be changed if I was absorbed by the Paexis..." Dita replied, a dreamy expression on her face.

Sometime later, once she had established command of the bridge, Magno finally decided to interrogate the remaining male prisoners. There were still people out looking for Meia and the so-called brother of the mysterious Sixgun. She was still unsure of what to think of Sixgun himself.

She eyed the prisoners. There was the doctor who had treated her crew's wounds earlier, the boy who Dita had been chasing earlier, and a wimpy blonde-haired man BC had discovered hiding in the crystal chamber, and sighed.

"You told me you'd taken some prisoners, but they're just kids!"

"Hey! It's interrogation time! I'll tell you everything!"

Magno looked down. A small white robot was hopping around her feet.

"How nostalgic! It's a Navi robot, and this one still seems to work.

"I'm afraid I don't follow you." Duelo said, guardedly.

"Yeah. This ship's been on our home planet for centuries." Bart chimed in.

"I thought so too!" said Hibiki.

Magno nodded.

"True enough, but this ship was actually part of a fleet that left Earth for colonization of outlying systems. This happened long before your fathers were even born. However, your cowardly grandfathers stole this ship and ran away into the night."

"They overhauled the old battleship and added residential quarters." The robot added.

"Correct. This is our job, however, so we'll gladly take the ship. However, the question remains, what are we supposed to do with you men?"

"We should dump them." BC responded. "The situation is already unstable enough as it is."

Magno eyed them interestedly.

"Maybe not. First we'll consider exactly how we want to cook these fellows up." She licked her lips.

Hibiki gave a panicked whimper.

'They really are gonna eat me!'

Suddenly there was a scraping noise and a loud hiss from the ceiling.

A section of the roof crashed down behind the prisoners. As everyone turned to look, a dark figure rose out of the debris. It was a machine, but one unlike any machine the room's occupants had ever seen.

It stood on two powerful, armored legs, double jointed and ending in a set of ferocious talons. Its body structure was thin, almost skeletal, and covered with layers of articulated armor. Its arms were equally thin and covered with blades. As they watched, stunned, a wickedly curved set of triple claws snapped out above each wrist. The head was long and streamlined backwards. The face, fortunately, was covered by a metal mask, but a pair of unholy red eyes burned through a black visor.

"Primary directive acknowledged: Elimination of all biological organisms! Combat protocols activated!" It hissed, additional blades sliding into place, as it prepared to leap.

Hibiki immediately dove under the seat for cover.

BC stared at the creature in shock.

"What the hell is that thing?!" She looked across at Duelo, who was watching the machine warily. He shook his head.

"I don't know. As far as I know, our military doesn't have the capability to produce such a weapon."

The two guards opened fire on it with their laser rings. To everyone's shock the attacks had no effect, ricocheting off the reflective armor.

Duelo's eyes widened slightly.

"That's nothing like I've ever seen, even from captured Mejerian technology."

With a roar, the creature launched itself at them.

The next second, the wall behind them exploded inwards as the tip of a shining silver blade erupted through the door, blasting it off its hinges, a raven-cloaked shadow behind it.

It struck the creature dead center of its chest, smashing it out of the air and impaling it, half the length of the blade burying itself in the wall behind it. When the dust cleared, the dark figure of Edge Axel stood victorious, his right hand gripping the handle of his blade in a reverse hold, the machine squealing in pain as it tried to free itself from the weapon that was ripping its internal systems apart.

Hibiki's jaw dropped.

"Edge?! How'd you get here?"

"I brought him." Meia replied, stepping over the remains of the door.

Magno's eyes narrowed.

"So this must be the brother Sixgun spoke of. He certainly seems nothing like his brother, at first glance anyway."

Edge nodded, looking around at them while dispassionately ignoring the dying machine. As he turned away, it saw its chance and struck. With a snarl of rage, it launched its right arm forward, the entire hand punching cleanly through Edge's chest, crimson blood dripping from it as it protruded from his back.

Even to Meia, who thought she had killed him earlier was horrified by the terrible injury. Edge, however, simply looked down at it, his expression unchanging. When he looked back up, an icy cold rage burned in his eyes.

He lifted his free hand, and shattered the creature's arm with a single punch. Grabbing it by the head as he drew his fist back, he tightened his grip on his sword. In a single fluid movement, he snapped his arms out to the sides, effectively shredding the creature in half, the sword leaving a diagonal scar as it cut through the wall while the sheer force of the attack completely destroyed what was left of the lower half. He brought the head and the mangled right shoulder up to eye level, his gloved fingers denting the metal and stared at it for a moment as it hissed weakly. Then, without warning, he whipped his arm forward, crushing the remains against the wall, smashing it to scrap metal and completely obliterating it. He pulled his arm back, pieces of metal still falling out of his clenched fingers and sheathed his sword, turning back to Meia and the others who were staring at him in open-mouthed shock. The entire fight had taken less than three seconds.

He met their stares with his own, and shrugged.

Duelo stared at the shattered piece of machinery still protruding from Edge's chest before he spoke.

"There shouldn't be a single being alive that could survive an attack like that. Are you even human?"

Edge glanced down at the remains of the creature's arm. The next moment, he reached up and, before anyone could stop him, ripped it out, leaving behind a gaping hole, visible only for a moment before his cloak slipped back into place. He seemed completely unfazed by the wound, examining the machinery for a moment, before he tossed it aside.

Bart promptly fainted, while everyone else stared aghast at the terrible injury, before a slight violet glow emanated from the edge of the cloak. It was only Meia, though, her gaze on his face, who saw the brief flicker of agonized pain pass across his features.

'So there is a limit to his healing ability after all...' she thought.

After a few moments, Edge shifted his cloak aside, to reveal no sign that a basketball sized hole had been ripped in him moments before. Apparently satisfied, he dropped the cloak back and turned his attention back to the others.

BC managed to find her voice.

"Wh-who...What the hell are you, and what was that creature?!"

"I...am Edge Axel. That creature was a bionic construct designed for mass slaughter, called a Serahk. It was smuggled on board the Ikazuchi before departure."

BC's eyes narrowed.

"A Tarak weapon that was left behind as a last line of defense? Where did they get the technological capability for this?"

Duelo shook his head.

"There was no word of the development of such a weapons system within the Tarak government. I would have known about it."

Edge nodded.

"This was not sent from the Tarak government. This would have wiped out both your crew, and any living being remaining aboard without a moment's hesitation."

BC looked confused.

"If not them, then who sent it?"

"I suspect our friend Edge knows the answer to that question." Magno spoke up, a piercing look in her eyes as she looked at Edge.

Edge fell silent, brooding.

Above the Medical Bay.

The Serahk hissed, the information of its comrade's destruction reaching it. The AI inside of it came to a decision, and it switched to attack mode. It crouched down and leapt up into the air, planning to smash through the ceiling into the room below.

At the peak of its leap, its tail snagged on something and it was rudely brought crashing back down in an ungainly heap. It snarled and whirled around, searching for the interruption. One of the two legged beings was standing behind it, its tail held in the iron grip of an outstretched fist.

Axel Sixgun grinned in the light of his cigarette.

"Wanna dance?"

In the showers, Barnette stopped her pounding for a moment and looked at the ceiling quizzically. There was a loud smashing noise, and several of the tiles shook, dust drifting down. There was silence for a moment, followed by more scuffling sounds. After a few more seconds of quiet, there was an almighty crash and a bestial shriek, followed by the sounds of shattering metal.

Then there was dead silence, broken only by the splashing water in the shower room.

The women looked at each other for a moment, before Barnette finally spoke up.

"What the heck was that?"

Edge looked around at his audience, briefly considering how much to tell them.

Magno looked at him expectantly.

"Well? Are you going to tell us or not, Mr.Edge?"

Edge opened his mouth to respond but stopped abruptly. Quickly, he turned away from them and held out his right hand. He tapped a few buttons on the silver device attached to his wrist, and a glowing holographic screen activated in front of him. After a few moments thought, he adjusted it and set it to project the image full-size on the far wall.

The white light resolved itself into the figure of Axel Sixgun, from the waist up, a darkened ventilation tunnel behind him. There were a few scratch marks on his uniform and he looked a bit battered, but his voice was serious.

"Edge, we got a problem. Somebody snuck a couple Serahk units on board before we took off." He held up the shattered remains of the unfortunate Serahk's head before continuing.

"I took out this one in the ventilation shafts but you know these things love to hunt in packs. There's at least one more running around somewhere..." He trailed off as he took in Edge's surroundings.

"Oh."

Magno nodded.

"One of those things showed up here a few moments ago. We were in the middle of interrogating your brother about them before you called."

Sixgun's face turned solemn.

"Then you know these things weren't sent by the Tarak government."

"Correct." BC said. "But we still don't know who sent them."

Edge and Sixgun stared at each other for a moment before they came to an unspoken agreement.

Sixgun looked back up at them.

"We believe we do. There's another faction, one that's been working behind the scenes of the government, that would like nothing better than to watch Tarak and Mejere destroy each other. We call it the Draconis Syndicate."

His normally cheerful demeanor returned.

"That's about all I can tell you for now, because some of the other stuff I'm not sure about myself. This far though, I can't find any traces of any other of these blasted things, so don't worry about it too much!"

He grinned confidently and started walking again.

BC bit her lip, worried.

"How did they know we'd be waiting for the Ikazuchi, then?"

"It's not that hard, really. If you-"Sixgun stopped in mid-sentence. The floor was making ominous creaking noises and sinking beneath him. His grin faded.

"Uh-oh." Was all he had time to say before it gave out and plunged him, the remains of the Serahk and most of the ceiling tiles beneath him into the room below.

"What was that?!"BC asked, startled.

Edge tapped some buttons and looked back up. The static dissolved to reveal a cloud of dust. As they watched, a large piece of support beam was knocked away, Sixgun's outstretched boot slamming up in front of the camera.

Sixgun sat up, coughing.

"Yech! Don't worry about it. My little fight with the Serahk earlier must have been a little wilder than I thought. I must've smashed up the ceiling too much, so it just caved in on me." He stopped and noticed he was getting wet. He looked up as he realized water was sprinkling down on him from above, the actual source hidden by some of the dust obscuring his vision. He sighed and looked back at the screen.

"I think I busted a water line or something. As if it couldn't get any worse. Any of you have any idea where this is?"

BC, Magno, Meia and Edge stared back at him, a strange expression on their faces, before Magno replied.

"The Medical bay, in the decontamination room."

Sixgun was taken aback.

"Hey, how'd you know that? I didn't even show you what the place looks like yet!" An thought struck him.

"By the way...You wouldn't mind telling me if there's one of your crew members who's an ace with antique weaponry? I ran into her on the Ikazuchi earlier. Name of Barnette. She wears purple and is one heck of a sore loser! I mean she was pretty good, but it really wasn't much of a contest to tell ya the truth." He boasted proudly.

Magno smiled.

"Why yes, I think I know who you mean."

Sixgun grinned.

"Cool! So where is she?"

Magno's smile widened.

"Why don't you ask her yourself?"

Sixgun looked at her, confused.

"What the heck are you..." He trailed off as he realized that Edge was frantically signaling him.

"What's up, Edge?"

Edge's eye twitched. Then he raised his hand and pointed, behind his brother.

Suddenly there was the sound of a rifle being cocked. Sixgun's face went dead and he turned his head around, very, very slowly.

Standing not two metres away from him was a seething Barnette, her assault rifle held at her side. Worse yet, Sixgun realized that she and the other four women behind her were missing a considerable amount of their clothing. As in, they were wearing little more than their underwear. And they were wet.

He turned back to the screen, his expression deadpan.

"The shower room."

Edge nodded resignedly.

"I'll call you back." The signal cut off.

"What was that all about?" Bart, who had recovered by this point, asked, confused.

Edge held up five fingers and started to tick them off one by one. When he reached three, he paused for a moment and recalled his brother's usual skill in situations like this, and ticked off the remaining three all at once.

Two floors down, at the exact instant Edge finished timing, a large chunk of the back wall of the shower room was literally kicked out, flying across the hallway outside and bouncing off the opposite wall.

Axel Sixgun bolted out of the shower room, skidding across the floor as he made a 90-degree turn left, a hail of bullets flying past him, and tore off at top speed. A split second later, Barnette, mostly dressed by this point, raced out into the corridor in hot pursuit, assault rifle blazing.

"LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY FIRST DAMMIT!" Sixgun yelled back over his shoulder as he frantically dodged bullets, not slowing down in the least.

"GET BACK HERE, YOU PERVERT!" Barnette screamed back, completely oblivious to anything Sixgun was saying.

Sixgun yelped and dove beneath another fusillade of shots, kicking off from one wall to another.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN PERVERT?! GET OVER YOURSELF, WOULD YA! I SAVED YOUR BLOODY LIFE, GODSDAMNIT! YOU'RE NOT EVEN THAT GOOD-LOOKING DAMMIT!"

Actually, Sixgun thought, that last part wasn't completely true. He'd gotten quite an eyeful of her athletically curved figure earlier, and hadn't been disappointed.

Not to mention she could probably kick his ass into next weekend if she wanted to. In a weird way, it was kind of attractive.

Any further speculation on Barnette's body was cut off by another blast of bullets.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY, YOU JERK?!"

Riiiight, Sixgun winced mentally. Now she's even madder. Not good.

Man, why don't I just shut up in situations like this?!

At the sound of gunshots, Edge groaned and smacked himself in the forehead. It never failed, did it? He turned back to the others and shrugged.

"He'll meet up with us eventually."

After about ten minutes, Sixgun stopped. He looked around warily.

"Oookay. I think I lost her."

Suddenly the sound of footsteps on his left sent him diving around the corner. A pair of pirates walked down it, chatting.

'That way's no good. Let's try heading back this way.'

He headed down the corridor he'd chosen, looking over his shoulder every now and then. After a while, he heard footsteps again, and this time he knew there was no mistake. It was coming from... further behind him?!

"Dammit!" he swore as he bolted for the next intersection.

Further behind him, Barnette smirked. She'd heard him speed up. He might have an advantage in speed, but she knew the layout of the corridors.

'I'll cut him off at the next intersection!' She thought, turning right onto a different corridor.

Ahead of him, Sixgun saw the intersection looming up and grinned, slowing down. He came to a complete stop and stretched, relaxing.

'Heh, shouldn't mess with the Sixgun, Angel.' He thought smugly.

Absorbed in his thoughts, he didn't hear Barnette racing towards him. He strolled around the corner at the exact same instant Barnette reached it. Their eyes met for a brief second, widening as they saw each other's face so close to them, millimeters away. Barnette braced for impact and closed her eyes while Sixgun did likewise.

Then there was a tremendous crash and everything went black.

Barnette stirred, returning to consciousness a few moments later. Her eyes fluttered open, an unrecognizable blur in front of her. She snapped awake, however, when the blur resolved into the features of Axel Sixgun, a stunned expression on his face. As feeling began returning to her body, she realized exactly why he looked so stunned.

She was lying sprawled on top of him, her legs off to either side of him and her hands resting on his chest. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, the collision, plus the subsequent landing, had left her with her lips pressed firmly against Sixgun's. With a muffled gasp she bolted upright, frantically searching for her gun, before Sixgun's arms whipped out and locked themselves tightly about her waist, pinning her arms.

"Let me go!" she demanded, struggling.

"Uh-uh. Not until you cool down."

"Wh-what do you mean?!"

"I'm working with your captain, so I'm not here to fight. It's a sort of truce. I'll only let you up on the condition that you listen to what I have to say first, before you shoot me."

Barnette squirmed for a few more minutes in his iron grip before she gave up.

"Alright. I'll listen."

Sixgun exhaled and released her. She got up and stepped away cautiously as he flipped upright. He dusted himself off and turned to her.

"Right. First off, sorry about the, uh, shower room." He said, slightly awkwardly. Barnette flushed slightly, but said nothing.

"Um, yeah. That was an accident. That ruckus you might have heard earlier was me. There was a dangerous machine up there and I kind of had to take it out. That was the other junk that fell through with me. If I hadn't done something, it would have broken into your area and believe me, you wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it from killing you all."

Barnette's eyes widened. From the grim look on his face, and the serious look in his eyes, he was telling the truth.

"Also, from our little fight earlier, you should know it wouldn't have been a problem to take you out earlier if I had really been dead set on violence."

Barnette growled angrily as her fists tightened. Annoying as he was, the man had a point. It would have been easy for him to take them by surprise and wipe them out before anyone could sound an alarm.

"Um..." Sixgun scratched his head awkwardly and looked cautiously back at her. "Sooo, you're not gonna try to shoot me again, right?"

Barnette sighed and slung her rifle over her shoulder, before she pulled out her communicator.

"Captain, it's me, Barnette. Do you know anything about a guy named Sixgun?"

Magno smirked.

"I see you two have finally decided to talk it over. Yes, I do know him. He's a sort of ally, at least until I say otherwise."

Barnette groaned.

"Okay, captain. Barnette out."

She turned back to Sixgun, a defeated expression on her face.

"Alright, fine. The captain says you're telling the truth." She paused for a moment. "But I still don't trust you! So don't go getting any ideas."

Sixgun grinned and gave a mock bow.

"Of course not! Perish the thought, my dear Angel!"

Barnette blushed. Underneath her normal predjudice against Taraks, there was a strange, new feeling about this man. He seemed almost...likable...in a way.

Then she realized something.

"Hey! You didn't apologize for that kiss earlier!"

Sixgun's grin widened.

"That's 'cause you were the one who kissed me, remember? You ran into me, not the other way around! I can't help it if you just can't resist me!" he laughed, as Barnette's face turned bright red.

"Why, you..."

"Uh oh. Hey, watch where you're pointing that thing...!"

Somewhere, in the eternal darkness of the Draconis Syndicate's stronghold, a black, twisted, evil looking version of the Phoenix Citadel, a signal was received from the machines observing the Ikazuchi. A white haired figure wrapped in a jet black cloak reached out and tapped the acknowledgement button. As its eyes moved down the text, it smiled evilly.

"So...they took out the Serahks. I expected no less. However, let's see how that pathetic Phoenix Archon's supposed 'heroes' handle this..." A black gauntleted hand typed out a series of instructions and transmitted them back to the waiting machines. The figure smirked.

"There is nothing that can stand against the might of the Draconis Archon! Try to stop me all you want, Phoenix! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Xelander Krelac's terrifying laughter echoed throughout the darkened chambers of the Draconis Citadel, a prelude to the chaos that was to come.

In the garden again, Dita looked up at the stars, and gasped.

"Wow! Ezra, look at that!" She said, pointing at something in the distance.

"Hmm?" Ezra pointed her viewfinder in the direction Dita was pointing and frowned.

A collection of red dots were rapidly approaching the fused ships. The identification signatures didn't match anything she was familiar with.

"I wonder what those are?"

Dita jumped up, completely overtaken with delight.

"Isn't it obvious?! They're more aliens!"

"Er...right..."

Seconds before the alert signals went off all over the ship, Axel Sixgun detected the enemy units rapidly closing in on them. Unlike the others, however, he recognized the enemy signals only too well. Tapping his headset, he opened a channel to his brother.

"Edge! We got company!"

In the interrogation room, Edge's eyes widened. The sudden change in his features was frightening. His face contorted into a terrifying snarl.

"Syndicate!"

Sixgun's face darkened.

"Got it in one. Meet me on the bridge!" He turned to Barnette.

"Something's headed this way, definitely hostile! You'd better go tell your pilots to get moving!"

The next minute, the ship was rocked by a series of blasts, knocking them off their feet. Sixgun dove forward catching Barnette before she could hit the floor. She looked up at Sixgun, his face inches away from her own, and blushed.

"Ummm...Thanks." She managed to say.

Sixgun finally managed to tear his eyes off of her violet gaze and return to reality.

"Hm? Oh, uh...yeah, no problem."

Back in the interrogation room, BC was in the process of dragging a reluctant Hibiki off to the warehouse. Meia turned to Edge.

"I saw you and your brother heading for Vanguards too. Can't you fly them?"

Edge shrugged.

"Never needed to."

He turned to Hibiki and caught his eye.

"It doesn't matter how you ended up here, Hibiki. What matters is what you do about it now, to prove that you existed."

Everyone else stared at Edge in confusion. For Hibiki, however, the meaning was crystal-clear. He stared at Edge for a moment, startled.

'How did he know...? Ahh, forget it!'

His eyes brightened, the old fire returning as he struggled out of BC's grip.

"Come on! We'll never get there at this rate! Move it!" he yelled at her before racing out the door. BC started and raced after him.

"Get back here!"

Meia turned to Edge.

"What did that mean?" she asked him.

Edge shook his head, the ghost of a smile flitting across his features.

"You need to go." He said, as another burst of explosions hit the ship.

Meia's eyes widened as she realized what he meant.

"Captain! There may not be enough power to operate the Dread launching platforms, but Jura, Dita and my Dreads are in the Vanguard launching bay. We may be able to get outside from there."

Magno nodded.

"Do it." As Meia raced out the door, Magno turned to Bart. "Meanwhile, you come to the bridge with me."

"S-sure." Bart said weakly.

Moments later, at the Vanguard hangar, Jura opened the door, and stopped dead at the sight before her.

Their Dreads were no longer the same machines they had been when they had left them.

"What is going on here?"She gasped.

Hidden in the shadows however, were the crystal enshrouded forms of two more Vanguards, their transformations not yet complete. They waited, one part Tsukumo Van-type, the next part, something...else...

They silently watched as Meia and the others each launched out into space, and waited for their masters, as the echoes of the Dreads' thrusters died out.

On the bridge, Bart walked hesitantly out towards the green pool, its surface shifting. This was the helm?! He'd never used one of these before, and the Captain's taunts weren't helping either. He cautiously poked the surface with one boot.

"Let's see... If I do this, then-Whoa!" He had time for one panicked scream before he vanished in a pillar of green light. Magno stared in disbelief.

"That's new."

Suddenly, the whole ship lurched.

"What the heck was that?!"

Moments later, Magno got an answer as the ship turned on a dime and bolted. The enemy machines, accompanied by their main ship, followed closely, Meia and the others trying to intervene.

Nearby, Edge leaned against the wall, his arms folded as he surveyed the battle outside. Meia's silver Dread was by far the most efficient, burning through machine after machine. The red one, piloted by the woman called Jura, was less graceful, her tactics different. The young one, Dita, who flew the blue one was continuously saying something about 'aliens', focusing more on trying to talk to the enemies than actually fighting them.

In each, he read a strange, new power, all different. It seemed the crystal had done more than remodel them. What these powers were, he would find them in time.

At that moment, however, the door opened and Axel Sixgun strode onto the bridge, Barnette trailing behind him. He glanced over at Magno and nodded, acknowledging her authority.

"Where've you been?" she demanded.

"Oh, around," he said, evasively. He turned to Edge.

"So, what do you think? Can we take 'em?"

Edge shook his head, before he straightened up.

"Not yet." He nodded to Magno. "The boy." He said, looking directly at BC. He detected a strong spirit, alive with determination suddenly blaze with energy aboard the ship.

Magno opened a channel to Meia.

"This is Magno. Hold on. Reinforcements are en-route, though we've no idea how useful they'll be."

Meia looked at her in confusion.

"Reinforcements?"

Moments later, Hibiki blasted out into space, his Vanguard vastly modified by the Paexis. Unfortunately, this was not much help, as he didn't have the faintest idea of how to use it.

"Stay away from me!" he yelped as he hurtled, out of control, into another barrage of shots. Meia watched blankly as he sailed past, flailing wildly.

"It's the good alien!" Dita cheered. Jura gave her a weird look.

"Umm...Right..."

On the bridge, Edge Axel blinked. When the gold Vanguard had made an appearance, the powers of the three other Dreads had suddenly surged, resonating with the energy in the core of Hibiki's Vanguard. Next to him, Sixgun stared at the gold Vanguard, a suspicion dawning on him.

"Edge," he said in a low voice. "That design..."

Edge nodded, and adjusted his gauntlets.

"A.C.E. Synchronous-type." He replied. He met his brother's gaze. Sixgun smirked.

"Ten bucks says you can't pull it off without getting hit at least ten times."

Edge shrugged and turned away. Sixgun called out to Magno.

"Tell 'em there's another reinforcement headed their way." He paused, and grinned, a glint in his eyes.

"And tell them the capabilities of this one are gonna be unbelievable."

Magno gave him a strange glance before she opened a new channel to the three Dreads, plus Hibiki. Before she could finish, however, Edge Axel was already moving.

He raced along the bridge, dodging every obstacle and with a tremendous kick, leapt off of the helm. Like a jet black bullet, he hurtled straight for the glass ceiling in front of them. BC gave a shout of alarm.

"Stop him before he destroys the glass!"

Sixgun smirked.

"Don't worry about the glass! Watch and learn! This is the real power of my brother! The power of the Nightmare!"

The glass distorted and rippled, as Edge reached it. His cybernetic eye blazed as the material shifted, allowing him to pass through it as though it were nothing more than water.

As his body met the cold vacuum of space, he began to change. His skin rippled, a shimmering black metallic membrane clicking into place over it. The carapace covered every external and internal organic surface, an insulating shield against the vacuum. When he felt the changes complete, Edge opened his eyes, the whites now tinted dark gray, his crimson irises burning. Finally, before the shocked gazes of everyone watching the battle, his cloak unfolded itself, flaring out as it took on its true shape.

Meia's eyes widened in recognition as a mighty pair of dragon wings spread themselves out to their full, awesome wingspan. They glowed as a dark violet aura surrounded them.

Magno stared at the image on the screen, stunned. In over eighty years as head of the pirates, she'd never seen anything like this. Around her, the rest of the bridge crew were silent, speechless.

Alarmed by the new threat appearing on their sensors, the enemies stopped their advance and turned toward Edge.

Edge's wings pulsed, the gravity drives within them bringing him to the head of the beleaguered Dreads. He stared across at the massing enemy forces.

'The fighters are mine. Deal with the main system.' He said, his voice sounding through the communications frequency.

Meia was the first to recover.

"Are you crazy?! The fighters are larger than you! What do you think you can possibly do?!"

'Destroy them.' he replied flatly.

Edge's eyes hardened. The enemy had reached a decision.

His wings flared with energy as his cybernetic eye blazed. Before anyone could react, he'd launched himself directly at the center of the enemy battlegroup, his speed surpassing that of a Dread.

"Wow! Look at Mr. Alien go!" Dita gasped.

The enemy machines locked onto Edge immediately and opened up with every weapon they had. Explosions burst into life throughout the void as the lightning blur that was Edge skillfully dodged them all. His eyes locked onto the nearest opponent and he snarled, his swords eagerly leaping into his hands. He plunged one into the glowing green eye at the front, the other sword sinking deep into the top of the machine.

Without waiting for his foe's imminent shutdown, he leapt to another, wiping each one out with pinpoint surgical strikes in their vital points. A trail of exploding fighters marked his passage.

Sixgun laughed wildly.

"Look at him go! Give 'em hell for me, bro! Ya don't need to shoot them to pieces if you know where they hurt!"

Magno smiled grimly, realizing that Edge's timely intervention was buying them the time they needed.

Meia paused for a second to watch Edge before she gave a snarl of anger.

"I won't let this victory go to some Tarak!" With that, she charged back in, her fighter's weapons blazing.

Hibiki, on the other hand, tightened his hands on the controls and launched himself straight for the enemy mothership, his energy blade destroying anything unfortunate enough to get in his way.

Unnoticed by him, however, Dita's blue Dread was close behind him, despite Jura's repeated warnings.

"Stay back, Dita!"

"No way! Mr Alien's going to win! I just know it!"

Just then, the enemy mothership launched a new salvo of fighters. The agile machines dodged Hibiki's attacks and slammed into him, pinning his sword arm as they formed a living net around him.

"Dammit!" he snarled. 'Just a little...farther..." he gritted, his Vanguard's free arm stretching out towards the shifting surface of the enemy vessel.

Suddenly he was slammed back into Dita's Dread as the enemy ship released a set of metallic tendrils, wrapping themselves around the fighter and the Vanguard. Dita gave a cry of pain as the impact slammed her back.

In the cockpit of the Vanguard, Hibiki fumed.

"I've come this far and I'm not gonna let myself be defeated by the likes of you!" He shouted in defiance.

Outside, Edge felt a surge of energy and whipped around, in time to see a charge of energy surge through the metal tendrils around Hibiki, before a tremendous explosion consumed the two trapped inside it.

Jura bit her lip and looked away, holding back her tears.

"That little fool..."

Meia stared at the dying cloud, unable to believe that the cheery red-haired pilot was gone. She was too distraught to see the three enemy machines closing in on her from behind.

Suddenly there was an animal snarl and a tremendous impact shook her Dread, sending it twisting away.

"Agh!" Meia gave a cry of pain as she struggled with her Dread's controls. As the universe spun crazily around her, she saw the shape of Edge Axel outlined in the white-hot flare of explosions, his body jerking as the blasts smashed into him.

'He saved me!' Meia realized, startled. 'He knocked me out of the way so they would attack him instead!'

Edge clenched his teeth in pain, a crimson trail of blood frozen to the left side of his mouth as the enemy attacks ate into his body. He saw Meia's Dread right itself out of the corner of his eye.

Meia's eyes widened as she heard Edge's voice, wracked with pain.

'Get...out of... here...! I will slow them...down as long as...I...can!"

"No, you fool! Get out of there! Edge!" The comlink went dead.

Seeing his momentary distraction, the enemy machines rushed him, six of them piling on him as they used their superior size and strength in an attempt to crush him.

As the machines began to crush the life out of him, Edge suddenly sensed something. A strange presence, like the one in his swords when he called them, but this one was...different... He became aware of a voice in his mind, fading in and out with his consciousness.

"Edge...! Get...out...o...ther...!"

...Maia...I'm...sorry...

Meia blinked. Was that...Edge's voice...?

The Vanguard hangar door exploded outwards as a beam of blazing light blasted outwards. It curved around the fused ships and hurtled straight for the cluster of enemy machines surrounding its master, shattered pieces of Van-type exoskeleton trailing behind it as a new, graceful silhouette formed within it. Meia threw her hand over her eyes against the glare.

"What's that light?"

It smashed full speed into the machines and erupted into a fireball of energy.

Magno sighed and lowered her eyes.

"BC, you'd better start the evacuation."

"Wait."

BC turned to look at Sixgun. To her amazement, a slow smile was beginning to form on his features.

"I will be damned. Looks like we just got lucky."

Amarone gasped as her control panel beeped.

"Captain! We're picking up two high level energy signatures forming outside!"

"They're identifying as friendlies!" Belvedere added.

"Miss Magno?" Sixgun grinned widely. "I think you might wanna take a look at this..."

Emerging from the explosion that had hidden Edge Axel, was a Vanguard. One like nothing they'd ever seen before. It resembled Edge perfectly, a pair of mighty dragon wings on its back, and a black greatcoat fastened to its body. The head was human shaped, only completely coated in a blank black surface. A metal mask on the right side was the only feature, identical to the one Edge wore, a cold crimson eye blazing in the eyepiece. The strange thing was that this Vanguard wasn't built like a normal Vanguard. In fact, it was designed more like a human than a machine.

"S-rank Sychronisation...! The damn V-type copied him!" Sixgun said, stunned.

It turned to look across at the enemy mothership as the metal tendrils shattered, a massive, armored blue hand smashing through them.

BC's eyes widened.

"First the Vanguard, now this? What 's going on?!"

A gigantic armored mecha smashed through the tendrils that had been holding it captive earlier, its red hot surface cooling to a deep blue in the cold of space. It turned its head across to look at the jet-black Vanguard. The two mechas nodded to each other, before the Vanguard blasted forward, powerful back-mounted thrusters roaring to life, the blue mecha close behind it.

The black Vanguard blurred for a moment, its twin greatswords flashing through space as it effortlessly shredded through enemies, while the blue mecha simply rammed through them.

As they neared the mothership, the greatswords glowed a brilliant green. Drawing them back, the black Vanguard released a tremendous slash of energy, a gigantic X shape slashing across the surface of the enemy vessel, before the blue mecha overtook it, enemy machines being destroyed by its mere force as they slammed uselessly into it.

"Go for it!" Sixgun yelled triumphantly.

Before the mothership could slam its damaged portal closed again, the mecha slammed its hands into the gap, prising it open as it used its full strength. Suddenly the two energy lances on its back flashed. As they watched, stunned the two lances smoothly lifted up and flipped over the machine's shoulders the deadly tips pointed straight into the belly of the enemy ship. They blazed as the pent up charges within them reached full power.

"Sayonara, suckers!" Sixgun laughed.

The lances fired, releasing a gigantic blast of energy. The ship bulged for a moment, desperately trying to contain the energy, before it exploded, erupting in a fireball of destruction.

The last enemy drone, fleeing uselessly from the dark Vanguard, jerked and drifted to a stop, the green glow in its eyes fading. Seconds later, a pair of greatswords flashed and it exploded.

The Vanguard turned its red eyes away from the remains of its opponent to look back at the dying explosion of the mothership.

The motionless figure of the blue mecha slowly came into view as the cloud faded.

Sixgun checked his watch.

"Meh, ten minutes, plus I win my bet. Not enough blowing stuff up, though."

He shrugged and turned away, strolling past a stunned Barnette who was still staring at the main screen. He flicked open his lighter, pulling out another cigarette.

"Ya might want to think about heading down to the Vanguard bay. That's about the only place big enough to hold those ships."

The door hissed shut behind him, the only sound on a silent bridge. After afew moments, BC managed to find her voice.

"Did he... expect this to happen?"

Magno shrugged.

"It doesn't matter. Let's get those kids back inside before they hurt themselves."

Inside the blue Mecha, Hibiki groaned, stirring.

"Heh-heh. Looks like I...did it..." He realized his hand was resting on something soft and opened his eyes.

There was someone else's hand under his own! He gave a yelp and recoiled. He looked around wildly.

"Where the heck is this?!" he yelled. There was a soft moan and something landed on his chest. He looked down to see the sleeping features of the same red-haired girl from earlier resting there.

Dita smiled in her sleep.

"I just knew Mr. Alien would save us...somehow..." She murmured, shifting slightly.

"Is this what Edge meant? Is this...proof of my existence...?" Hibiki wondered.

Not too far away, Edge blinked looking around. He was inside of a clear blue sphere, system readouts and various other bits of data scrolling down the sides of the screen, overlaid on the image the space outside. He looked around, noting the three hundred and sixty degree of vision and winced slightly as he remembered his injuries. Surprisingly, he felt no pain.

Apparently, this machine had also given a sizable boost to his regenerative capabilities, healing his body while he'd been unconscious. He raised his hand slightly and looked at it, flexing the fingers. Outside, he saw the Vanguard do the same.

Interesting...It responds to my movements...

After a few moments, he became aware of someone watching him and whipped his head around.

Seated in her Dread, Meia couldn't help giving a little gasp of surprise as the black Vanguard's head turned suddenly towards her, the piercing red eyes meeting her gaze. To her surprise, she saw them widen, almost in surprise, as they recognized her.

After a few moments, Meia looked away. A message appeared on her screen, ordering her back to the ship, and she gladly obeyed, happy for a reason to get her mind off of Edge.

Edge watched her go, his face unreadable. He raised his hand and touched the golden locket around his neck.

Maia... he thought, before he too turned his attention homewards.

In the hangar bay.

Sixgun stared up at the black Vanguard as its wings refolded into a cloak, just like Edge, a bored look on his face. Somewhere off to the side, Hibiki was creating an uproar as five pirates struggled to drag him back out of his Vanguard, while some annoying red-head kept hovering around, saying something about 'Mr.Alien' or something. The pesky, glamour-obsessed blonde had gone off somewhere, to take a shower, he guessed. Meia, however, had stuck around, to do some 'maintenance work on her Dread'. However, he'd seen her occasional glances over here at Edge's Vanguard, so he was sure it was just an excuse.

A hiss announced Edge's arrival. Sixgun looked back up and yawned as Edge leapt down from his cockpit.

"About time ya showed up. How's the S-rank doin'?"

Edge glanced at him and then looked over at the bay where the other stolen Vanguard was stored. Sixgun followed his gaze and gave a little laugh.

"Nah, I'll bust that out when I'm good and ready. I- Hey are you listening?" Edge wasn't paying attention, his eyes somewhere in the distance. Sixgun tried to see what had his brother's attention.

"Oh."

On the other side of the bay, Meia met Edge's eyes with her own cold glare. Truce or not, she wouldn't forgive him for disgracing her so easily. Saved by a man.  
With a shake of her head she turned away and headed out of the bay. Edge's eyes narrowed, and he turned back to Sixgun, who was watching him interestedly.

"My, my, my. I hope you didn't save her just because of her resemblance to-" He was cut off as Edge grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up to eye level, his feet leaving the floor. Edge's eyes were as cold as the vacuum of space itself as he glared at his brother.

"Don't...even...go there...little brother." He growled, his voice frigid. Sixgun shrugged.

"Suit yourself. Oh, by the way." He paused for a moment and smirked.

"You owe me ten bucks. I won the bet, remember?"

Moments later, pirates leapt aside in surprise as Sixgun sailed the full length of the docking bay and slammed upside-down, spread eagled in the wall next to the door. Then they jumped out of the way as Edge stalked past, in a high bad temper.

Barnette bent down and stared at Sixgun.

"I'm amazed you're still alive."

Sixgun sighed and looked up at her.

"I've had worse. I'm supposed to head back to the prison bay now, aren't I?"

Barnette grinned and leveled her assault rifle at him.

"Bingo."

Sixgun groaned.

"This just isn't my day, is it?"

Outside, Edge ran into Magno and BC.

"My, where are you off to in such a hurry?" Magno remarked.

Edge's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing.

"No offense, but for now we'd like you and your brother to stay down in the brig with the other men."

Edge blinked as Magno continued.

"At the moment, we don't know what to do with you, but the idea of one of you walking around the ship unchecked is making some of the crew a little nervous. You understand, don't you?"

Edge nodded and turned to see a resigned looking Sixgun walking out of the room behind him.

"So you've heard, then. Some gratitude, huh? By the way, thanks ever so much for piledriving me into the wall."

"..." Edge turned and stalked off after Hibiki and the others.

"What's with him?" BC asked. Sixgun shrugged.

"Neh, he gets like that occasionally. Best to just leave him alone for now. OW!"

Sixgun whirled around as Barnette prodded him in the back with her rifle.

"Come on, let's go."

Sixgun muttered something under his breath, but complied with her instructions.

'Gonna be one of those days.' He thought. 


	4. 3:And so it begins

Chapter 3:

Disclaimer: I own the Axels, all Syndicate members and Singularity.

The briefing room…

"Continue with your report, BC." Magno nodded to her second in command.

"Yes Captain. The entire ship has now been completely consumed by the crystal. The bridge, residential and engineering sections have now been completely absorbed and all systems have been infused with Paeksis crystals. Fortunately, the Dread launching platforms were not affected, and at this stage we are entering the new data into the systems. Currently, it looks like the reactor has reached its peak and is slowing down. Also, the bridge has stopped sliding from the original configuration and is now overlooking the ship's garden."

Magno sighed, and fanned herself. Among the systems still offline were the environmental control systems, meaning that the current temperature was close on a hundred Celsius.

"And our current location?"

"It's difficult to believe, but the vortex that occurred with the collision of the Muramasa and the Paexis reaction has transported us a long way away from Mejere and Tarak. In fact, we're in a completely different system. It will take us approximately 270 days for us to return to our home system."

Magno groaned.

"What did we ever do to deserve being flung halfway across the galaxy?" She turned to the blue haired Dread commander.

"Meia, what do you have to report?"

Meia nodded.

The three Dreads that were absorbed by the Paeksis, including mine are now too big to fit into the regular launching platforms. We've modified the cargo bay area on the men's section of the ship and are storing them there. During the modifications, we made a few discoveries ourselves. It seems that this entire section of theship hasn't been used for some time. The circuits and conduits are all decayed and useless."

"I see." Magno's face turned grim. "And what of our enemies?"

"I decided to deploy a scouting party to the wreckage of the alien vessel to see if we could gain any information from it. At the moment, my team is understaffed, so I asked for some…volunteers."

"Volunteers?"

--

Somewhere outside the ship…

"Wow! Look at that! It's an Adamsky type UFO! Did you see it Ms. Gasco?" Dita chirped happily, as she snapped pictures madly.

Behind her, Gascogne sighed. It was going to be a looong day...

--

Sixgun smirked as he watched the other men being hosed down by high pressure jets of water.

"My, the women certainly have a harsh method of decontamination, don't they?"

"Oh shut up." Barnette replied, annoyed. Sixgun had since ditched his military uniform for a sleek black jumpsuit in preparation for his own decontamination. Every now and then, her eyes would flicker sideways as he moved, the toughened muscles beneath the suit shifting. Again, she mentally reminded herself not to underestimate this man. Especially considering he'd broken every set of restraints they'd put on him. His brother, much to the relief of the decontamination personnel, didn't have to undergo this procedure. This was mostly because everyone felt that anything that could have survived his fight in space probably wouldn't be gotten rid of simply by some cold water.

Well, that and the fact that he scared the hell out of all of the women.

As the others were led out, Bart and Hibiki shivering and sneezing violently, on the bridge, Magno and BC watched them on the monitor.

"So these are the only men aboard?"

BC nodded.

"Yes Captain. It seems as though we'll have to rely on them until we fully understand this ship."

Magno nodded as she recalled the ship's actions after the battle. It had gone into full-auto standby mode, releasing Bart from the helm.

"It was almost as if it had a mind of its own."

A sudden argument from the screen drew her attention back to the decontamination room. Apparently, Sixgun had drawn the line at removing his jumpsuit. He was standing there, arguing furiously with Barnette, both of them often using rather unprintable language. Eventually Barnette gave up and turned to the screen.

"Captain? A little help here, please?"

"What seems to be the problem, Sixgun?"

Sixgun shrugged.

"I'd just rather not remove my suit. I have my reasons."

"Unfortunately, so do we."

Sixgun sighed in defeat.

"Alright, fine. Suit yourself. Just don't ask me about anything you see."

He turned and headed off to the decontamination room, undoing the clips on the front of his suit. Barnette looked at the screen and shrugged, before following him.

Sixgun turned to face them, his back to the wall.

"Well you asked for it." He sighed, and stepped out of it, clad in a loose pair of boxers.

Barnette's eyes widened and she had to stop herself from crying out in horror.

Sixgun had indeed had a reason for not wanting to remove his suit. Several reasons, in fact.

Running diagonally from his left shoulder, a terrible scar traced its way across his body, continuing around his body in a continuous circle. Twin circles of scars ran around his left arm, sectioning it in three pieces. On his legs, a single circle ran around each one at an angle, one low down, below his left knee, while the other was slightly above his right, the angles lining up perfectly with each other.

Barnette felt the bile rise in her throat. All of the scars were a mere line, with a minimum of scar tissue, meaning whatever had caused them had been an edged weapon, like a sword. Alone, that wasn't enough to horrify someone. What truly made it terrifying was that each and every one of them ran around whatever part of his body they were on, which meant…

She pressed a hand to her mouth. The weapon, whatever it was, had cut straight through his body!

Sixgun shrugged.

"Tried to warn you."

In the adjoining room, Duelo stared at Sixgun, his eyes narrowing.

'There is absolutely nothing living that can take that kind of injuries and remain so. First that…Edge, and now this one…Are they even human? Or are they…something else entirely?'

Sixgun stared pointedly at the people manning the hose.

"Any time now would be good. I'm alive aren't I?! SO QUIT STARING!"

Barnette swallowed her revulsion and nodded to them.

Moments before the jet of icy water hit him, Sixgun paused.

'Oookayyy. Perhaps that was not the brightest thing to say-God**DAMN**IT that's cold!'

Barnette turned back to the screen where Magno and BC were still staring at Sixgun in disbelief.

"Now what, Captain?"

BC gave a mental shake and returned her attention to the present.

"More bad news I'm afraid. Your and Jura's quarters were invaded by the crystals, so it looks like you'll have to move. Jura's already started."

Barnette hung her head in despair.

"Why does it always happen to me?" she moaned, as she headed for the door.

'It's going to be an interesting trip.' Magno thought to herself.

--

In the prison bay…

"It was so unnerving!" Bart said, continuing his vastly distorted version of events as he tried to strike up a conversation with his fellow prisoners. Hibiki lay back in the corner of the cell, staring up at the ceiling as he contemplated the recent happenings.

"One after another my comrades fell all around me, until I was the only one left standing!" Bart continued, oblivious to the fact that he was being ignored. "But I knew that even alone I had to find a way to retake the ship! And now fate has given me three-" He glanced nervously across at the pitch black cell that hid Edge, a crimson spark the only indication that the cell was occupied. "Well, four, able allies. What do you say?"

He glanced at each of them hopefully.

"Would you shut up already?! You're getting on my nerves!" Hibiki snapped at him.

"Relax, Hibiki. He's just letting off some steam to take his mind off things." Duelo spoke up.

"He's right, kid. Yech! How in the hell do you people survive on this stuff?! Tastes like crap!" Sixgun tossed an empty pack of Tarak food pills across the room and watched disinterestedly as it vaporized on contact with the bars.

Duelo watched him with some measure of interest.

"That was supposed to feed someone for three meals."

Sixgun looked at him and gave a snort of disgust.

"You people must have small stomachs then. I'll be lucky if that crap keeps me until dinner."

"I see. Yet that doesn't explain you or your brother's presence here. I don't remember ever seeing either of you before, in the elites or the military."

Sixgun looked down at his uniform.

"This? Nah, I just used it to get on board."

"And those scars of yours?"

"That's my business." Sixgun said coldly. "And if you want to find out about Edge, you ask him, not me."

Before Duelo could ask about the black Vanguard, Bart cut him off.

"Yeah, but we don't have time for that. We need to figure out how to retake the ship. So how about it? With the two of your fighting skills, your brains and my superior speaking ability, we could take these women!"

"Oh, really. I'd like to hear how you plan to do that." Said a female voice from behind him.

Bart turned around very slowly to find BC standing outside the cell, grinning.

Sixgun whistled innocently as he fished out his lighter from an inside pocket.

"Annnd another one bites the dust."

--

**Engineering Section.**

One of the video screens flickered and came to life, revealing the face of the bridge operator Belvedere.

"What's with the air-conditioning? It's at least eighty degrees in here!" She complained, loosening her uniform's collar.

Parfait stepped over to the screen.

"Don't complain! It's over a hundred down here!"

"Aargh! Hold still already!"

Parfait keyed off the screen and looked off in the direction of the outburst. One of the other engineers was trying her best to restrain something.

"What's going on?"

The technician looked across at her and sighed. On the table in front of her, the Navi robot was struggling frantically, trying to escape. For the last fifteen minutes, she'd been trying to hook him up to the ship's systems in an attempt to use him as a diagnostic system.

"BEEP! Let me go!"

--

Paiway sat on the edge of the elevator, her legs dangling over the rim as she wrote in her notebook.

"As the valiant crew continued to do their best, Magno's family suddenly found themselves in a new and difficult crisis."

"Hey! Hold that elevator!"

Paiway looked up to see Barnette and Jura step on to the elevator, carrying their various personal belongings, a result of their quarters' destruction.

"Instead of just sitting around doing nothing, why don't you do something important?" Jura asked her as she struggled under a pile of her precious outfits.

"I am doing something!" Paiway replied, closing her diary. Then she held up her frog puppet, speaking through it in a gruff sounding voice.

"Barnette and Jura sure have a lot of stuff, ribbit!"

Reverting to her normal voice, she replied to it.

"It's a good thing our room wasn't changed so we don't have to move!"

"She's pushing my buttons." Jura growled in annoyance. Barnette nodded and was about to reply when she noticed something.

"Uh, Pai? What's that rope tied to you for?"

"This is only a temporary elevator, so it's not my fault if it gets stuck! See you! Ribbit!"

She was then lifted off the elevator as the two Dread pilots watched in shock.

"You're kidding, right?! Paiway!"

--

**In the remaining wreckage of the enemy mothership...**

Gascogne looked through the wreckage. The sheer power of the energy blast from the blue mecha, now named the Vandread Dita, had practically blown the entire ship inside out. She sighed as she gave her report to the watching captain.

"Progress is real slow in here, and the damage is unbelievable. Considering the amount of firepower this thing got hit with, it's a miracle this wreck's even here still. There's still a lot of stuff to go through at this point." She hesitated for a moment, before she went on.

"To tell you the truth Captain, this thing isn't like any vessel I've ever seen before. It actually resembles more of a mobile factory than a ship."

Nearby, Dita was busily snapping pictures of everything in sight and, of course, paying absolutely no attention whatsoever to the conversation going on.

"Wow! Look at that!" She exclaimed suddenly. "Hey, Miss Gasco! Can I go look around?"

" No! Absolutely not! We've got a very important job to do here, Dita and sightseeing is not a part of it!" With that, she flicked the faceplate of Dita's suit, sending her cartwheeling backwards.

"Waaah! I can't stop!"

"Very well then. I'll leave the investigation in your hands, Gascogne."

She tapped a button on her armrest. Her chair detached itself from the table and whirred around to face the door behind her, which hissed open in response. The chair rolled forward along a pair of tracks, out the door and down a slight slope to the bridge. It slid into Magno's command console and locked into place.

She turned to look at BC and the captive Bart, who laughed nervously.

"Heh, I heard you wanted something from me?"

Magno nodded and pointed across at the helm.

"Yes. That thing. We haven't been able to operate it, so you'll have to tell us how you did it."

Bart smirked, some of his confidence returning.

"Uhh, right. Yes, of course." He stretched the manacles on his wrists a couple times and glanced meaningfully across at BC. "Considering the circumstances, I don't have much choice, do I?"

BC shrugged and pressed the release button for the restraints. As they clattered to the floor, Bart moved off towards the helm.

"Now listen very carefully. This is a male ship. Therefore only men can operate it. So I suppose you were very fortunate to have found me. In fact you could probably say that I'm indispensable and- waaagh!" He was cut off as the helm activated and literally yanked him off his feet and into the helm.

Magno shook her head.

"I really don't think I'll ever understand this system at all."

In the helm, Bart blinked and looked around.

"Er…let's see here…uhhh, okay…"

All of a sudden the drive system booted up and the vessel launched forward, turning around and accelerating away from the alien wreckage. The sudden jolt caught everyone by surprise as the internal stabilizers struggled to compensate.

In the elevator, Barnette and Jura yelled as they were bounced around inside of the elevator.

"What's happening now?!"

On the bridge, the three operators struggled to stop the ship, with little success.

"The system just booted up and now we're off on some unknown heading!"

"Bart! What in blazes did you do in there?" Magno barked angrily.

"Hold on a minute! I didn't do anything! The whole ship's on autopilot!"

--

Gascogne pulled out the data disk from the downloader that had been copying any and all information remaining in the enemy ship's mainframe.

"Okay, we've just about finished here." She said, tapping her headset. Static was her only response.

'Something must have happened.' she thought. "Come on Dita, let's go."

With that, she activated her jets. Dita, further above her, nodded and started her own. Suddenly, there was a blur of movement, and the wreckage behind Gascogne exploded outward in a flurry of mechanical tendrils.

--

**Back on the Ikazuchi...**

Ezra frantically tried to reach the two crew members that had been left behind.

"Ms.Gasco! Ms. Gasco, please respond!"

BC turned to Amarone.

"Deploy the buoys!" she ordered. The dark-skinned operator nodded and turned to her controls.

Suddenly there was a gasp and a thud from behind the second in command. BC whirled around, to see the gentle Ezra unconscious at her station.

"EZRA!"

--

**In the cells…**

Sixgun lit another cigarette. As usual, the people who'd put him in here hadn't been able to find them, just like in every other jail he'd gotten himself thrown in, and boy was that a lot. There was a mumbling sound nearby and he glanced across at Hibiki. The boy was saying something in his sleep… Something about Grandpa or somebody. There was a rustle and he saw Duelo moving towards Hibiki.

The doctor crouched next to the boy and looked at him with a critical eye for a few moments. Duelo lifted Hibiki's hand and checked the pulse. A little faster than normal, but that was to be expected. Better to make sure. He pressed his forehead against Hibiki's, testing the temperature.

Sixgun looked back up at the ceiling. Well, if nothing else, it'd be interesting if Hibiki woke up while the doctor was doing that. Not for the first time, he released his guns and double-checked their condition. Last thing he needed was another one of the Syndicate's nasty little surprises jumping him now.

"WHAT THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

Bingo.

"Checking your temperature." Duelo replied, unfazed. "You were talking in your sleep. Something about someone named Grandpa. Who is that?"

"Grandpa's just Grandpa. He's the one who raised me." Hibiki replied.

Sixgun's eyes flicked across to Edge's darkened cell and met his brother's crimson stare.

'Kid, if you only knew…' he thought grimly.

"Your name is Duelo, correct? It's your turn to come with me now." The raven-haired medic nodded as the cell bars were deactivated. Sixgun glanced across at them boredly, and snapped his weapons back together. BC smirked.

"Smart move."She said as she took her hand off the whip coiled at her waist. Sixgun shrugged.

"Meh, I got better things to do." With that, he folded his arms behind his head and kicked back on the bench. "Hurry up and find something you need me for. It's bloody boring in here." He adjusted the beret over his right eye and closed his eyes.

BC ground her teeth at his insolence but turned and walked away, leading Duelo as the bars reactivated. Hibiki turned to Sixgun.

"You could have taken her!" he said accusingly. Sixgun's eye flickered open again.

"Gee, ya don't say. Sure! And then what would we do? In case you didn't notice, we're kind of stuck on a ship that's out in the middle of nowhere! And unless you know how to fly it, I'd prefer not to have to rely on that blond guy's navigation skills!"

"Er, well…"

Sixgun sighed.

"Kick back and relax for a bit. They'll need us eventually." He paused for a moment. "Although it'd be nice if somebody actually got around to fixing the blasted AC system." He said, annoyed.

In the helm, however Bart would have preferred the heat of the nice safe prison cell, compared to the icy hell he was now going through. Moments ago, the fused ship had flown into the debris ridden cloud of a nebula, resulting in Bart getting whacked with countless pieces of ice and asteroids as they collided with the hull.

"Owww! Could you hurry up and raise the shield's pleease?! This hurts you know!"

--

Bart and Sixgun weren't the only ones with problems. At that moment, Barnette was seriously regretting having chosen to use the elevator as the damn thing had jammed, trapping her, Jura and their belongings in about four feet of space.

Meia discovered that among the systems offline was the launching platform for the Dreads meaning that she wouldn't be able to send help for Gascogne and Dita.

Duelo, after leaving the prison cell, had been escorted to the medical bay. Once there, he'd seen the person they wanted him to examine, a gentle-looking young woman lying unconscious on the last bed.

Duelo raised an eyebrow. As far as he knew, Mejeran medical technology far surpassed Tarak's, so why did they need him? When he put the question to the silver haired sub-commander, she smirked.

"You really are one of the elite, probing for information at every chance you get." She shrugged. "Alright. Among the systems still down are our medical systems, so we need all the help we can get. Besides, it'll give you a chance to learn about the female physiology." She paused for a minute and gave him a mocking glance. "Is that enough information for you?"

Duelo grinned.

"I'll examine the patient." He said, heading towards the unconscious Ezra.

--

Moments after entering the nebula, the ship lowered itself into a particularly dense section and came to a stop, everything but the top of the Ikazuchi old section submerged in the semisolid stream of gases. A few moments after that, power to all but a minimum of vital systems was lost as the ship shut down.

"Engines have now shut down, Captain." Amarone reported. Magno groaned as the melting ice pack on her forehead shifted.

"Just when I get the good news that we've stopped, I find out we're in a nebula of all places." As if to mock her, the small fan mounted to her console chose that minute to sputter out and die.

"Captain, it appears that another section of the ship is transforming again." The blonde-haired Belvedere announced.

In the medical bay, Duelo blinked and glanced up, as the medical bay lost power, the room dimming. Before anyone could react, he reached out and snatched the communicator out of the nearby guard's holster.

Ignoring the guard's indignation at having the device stolen, he activated it, calling the engineering section.

"Engineering! This is Medical. I'm trying to work on a patient here. Make power to the sickbay a top-priority!"

An exasperated Parfait answered him.

" I'd love to do that only we've got our own problems down here! I can't read men's language, so there's not much I can do right now!" She glanced down at the information scrolling across the Navi-bot's screen. Earlier, she'd hooked him up to the system in order to use him as a status monitor, only it had backfired when whatever screwed up the ship's systems messed him up too.

"If I were there, I could read it for you myself." He glanced inquiringly across at BC. She shrugged.

"Go right ahead."

Duelo nodded.

"I'm on my way." He replied. He handed the device back to the fuming aide and swept out of the infirmary, his coat flaring out behind him.

Ten minutes later, he was on an elevator, headed up towards the Engineering level. Deep in thought, he gazed out at the huge mass of the Paexis reactor as the elevator continued moving.

The final door hissed open and he stepped into the engineering room. The engineer closest to the door leaped about a foot into the air when she saw him.

"It's a man!" She yelped in surprise. Parfait turned around.

"Oh, good, it's you." She said, unfazed. "Come over here and take a look at this."

Duelo nodded impassively and walked over towards the table. The other engineer watched him go nervously.

Parfait indicated the readouts scrolling across the screen of the navi-bot. " I can't make any sense out of this."

"It's just a Hi-type number 6 data feed." Duelo replied, examining it. He looked at her questioningly. "Just what exactly were you trying to do here anyway?"

"Oh, that. Well for some reason this guy and the Paexis seem to be linked somehow. I thought if I could connect the two I could use him to figure out what's wrong with the ship."

"Interesting… According to this, there seems to be a massive build-up of impurities, probably due to the fusing of the two ships."

"So? Can you fix it?" Parfait asked him. Duelo straightened up and turned to her.

"I'm sorry to say this, but I'm a doctor, not an engineer."

"That's no excuse!" Parfait replied indignantly. "Everything that moves is alive! That's what I believe, and isn't a doctor's duty to fix all living things?"

Duelo looked at the feisty engineer with renewed interest.

"You have a rather interesting point of view," he replied. "Very well then, I'll help you."

Parfait smiled.

"That's more like it!" she said appreciatively.

--

On the command bridge, Magno glanced up at the screen as the image of her second in command appeared.

"Captain, I have an idea."

"What is it, BC?"

"Since the Dread platforms are offline, we can't launch any of them to go back for Gascogne and Dita. However…"

"However?"

"The Vanguard platforms are still active. It's potentially risky, but we could send out that young man called Hibiki to go out after them in his Vanguard."

"Hmmm…An interesting idea. All right, explain the situation to him and see if you can get him to agree to it."

BC nodded.

"Right away, Captain." Before she could sign off, however, Magno had one last question for her.

"By the way, BC… What are you doing in the men's section of the ship?"

BC paused for a moment. "Just fulfilling my duties as your second-in command, Captain."

The screen went dead.

Duelo glanced up at the screen in front of him.

"Curious," he murmured, "It appears as though the ship is reacting to the composition of the nebula around us."

"Huh?" Parfait leaned over his shoulder to get a better look. "That's it!" She exclaimed.

"The ship must be trying to use the nebula's gases to neutralize the impurities!"

Duelo nodded, in full agreement with her theory.

"It actually appears as though it's behaving like a living thing!"

--

Back in the prison cells…

"Why in the hell is it so goddamned hot here?!" Sixgun groaned. He'd long since ditched the military uniform for his jumpsuit, and even then he'd had to remove the shirt for it to have any effect.

"What the hell are you askin' me that for? I'm suffering just as much as you are, aren't I?" Hibiki replied. He'd simply stripped down to his underwear, the heat too unbearable for anything else.

Not for the first time, Sixgun glanced across at his brother, who still looked completely unaffected, his eyes closed as he rested.

"Sometimes I envy that guy." He muttered. Suddenly, he heard footsteps outside, heading towards their cells.

"Hey, kid. I think we might have just gotten lucky."

Hibiki glanced up at him blearily. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

Moments later, the silver-haired figure of BC appeared outside their cell. She smirked as she saw their condition.

"My, my, what interesting outfits. Don't you men have any shame?"

"Look who's talking!" Hibiki retorted. "At least knock or something!"

Sixgun raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure you didn't come here just to pay us a social visit. What's the deal?"

BC sighed. "Sharp as ever, I see. Very well. The reason I came down here was to ask you two a favor."

"A favor, huh? Just what kind of favor, exactly?"

"When the ship dove into the nebula, we left two of our crew members behind. We'd like Hibiki to go out after them, since are Dread launch platforms are down and we can't do it ourselves."

"Oh, really? And just what makes you think I'll help women?" Hibiki replied, annoyed.

"Well, I thought that men were a proud race, willing to help anyone weaker than themselves."

" Kid, maybe you should think about tuning down the temper a little." Sixgun interrupted. "Besides, it couldn't hurt to help them out a little. On the bright side, at least your Vanguard's got a working air-conditioner."

Hibiki grumbled about it for a bit, but in the end he eventually agreed.

Sixgun turned back to BC.

"Now that that's settled…" His eyes narrowed. "What do you want me for?"

BC sighed.

"Well, at the moment, we still don't have power to most areas of the ship. A couple of our crew members are stuck in one of the elevators, and we don't have anyone free to go and get them at the moment. Since you yourself don't seem to be doing all that much right now…"

"You want me to go and get them, don't you." Sixgun finished for her. BC nodded. He sighed.

"Alright. I'll do it. Just gimme a second to get my shirt back on." He picked back up the top of his jumpsuit and started putting it on again.

"Also…" BC turned to face Edge, who had by this time awoken and had been watching the conversation.

"They're having some trouble with the crystal invading a few of the hangars. It's been causing a bit of a headache since our normal cutters aren't working as efficiently."

"I'd like you to go down and help them out."

Edge stared expressionlessly at her for a few moments, before he shrugged and gave a slight nod. BC looked relieved for a moment. That had turned out a lot easier than she had hoped.

"Right now, the modified section we're using to store the altered Dreads semms to be having the most problems, so that's where I'd like you to head first."

Edge nodded again.

"Well, now that you all seem to be finished getting ready, shall we go?"

--

Inside the wreckage of the alien vessel, Dita tried frantically to cut through the tendrils imprisoning Gascogne.

"Oh, it's no use Ms. Gasco! I can't cut through this stuff! I'll go get the tools from the Dread!"

Gascogne shook her head.

"Don't bother with that now, Dita. Have you forgotten our mission? Someone has to get back with the data on that disk! Take your Dread and head back!"

"What?!" Dita looked horrified. "I can't just leave you here Ms. Gasco!"

Gascogne groaned. "Who said anything about leaving me here to rot? This isn't some third-rate soap opera after all! I'm sending you to go get some help, too! Now get going!"

Dita hesitated for a moment, before she nodded and headed out to her fighter.

No sooner had she left though, than the insides of the wreckage hummed back to life as concealed panels opened, releasing more of the alien Cube-type fighters, along with some smaller ones which, Gascogne realized with a sinking feeling, appeared to be repair drones.

--

On the command bridge, Belvedere blinked as her radar beeped, signaling a contact on the sensors

"Captain, sensors are picking up a large object on a collision course. It appears to be an asteroid-sized chunk of ice."

"Bart! Did you hear that?! Do something!" Magno barked.

Unfortunately, judging by the sounds coming over the helm's channel, Bart was currently in the middle of a hysterical screaming fit and was now of no help to anyone whatsoever.

"The input/output ratios are off." Duelo reported scanning the information scrolling down the Navi-bot's screen.

"That's because there aren't enough link-routes to handle the strain!" Parfait replied, looking up from her own terminal further down.

"But the existing ones can't handle the strain on their own."

"Don't give up yet! There's got to be a way!"

Duelo glanced back down at the screen as he contemplated the problem. When no immediate solution presented itself, he decided to look at the problem from another viewpoint, treating the ship like a living thing. Bringing his considerable medical knowledge to bear, within moments he had a solution.

"What about a bypass?" He asked, turning back to Parfait. "When a patient's arteries are clogged, you simply create an alternate route to divert the flow and reduce the congestion."

Parfait smiled and nodded as she understood what he was saying.

"A detour, huh? Good idea, doctor!" She reached up to pat him on the shoulder. "You know, you wouldn't have made a half-bad engineer!"

With that, she walked back towards her staff.

"Alright everybody! Time to get busy!"

Duelo glanced down at where her hand had rested, contemplating the touch.

--

Still held prisoner by the metal tendrils, Gascogne could only watch in morbid fascination as the alien machines went about their repairs with startling efficiency, joining themselves together and interlocking to replace damaged sections.

"They can regenerate even under these conditions?" she murmured in disbelief.

Suddenly, she caught a flicker of movement to her left. Turning around, she came face to face with one of the enemy fighters. Up close the things were even bigger, not to mention ugly. The single green eye on the front glowed ominously as it extended a menacing, razor-sharp manipulator. Gascogne laughed nervously.

"I guess I know what you want for dinner, huh?"

Not too far away, the Cube-types launched by the wreck had caught up to Dita, blasting away at her retreating fighter as she frantically tried to escape from her pursuers.

"Waaaaah! I really hate aliens who don't know when to give up!" She wailed as another blast rocked her Dread. Suddenly her radar beeped, detecting another contact closing in from ahead of her.

"From the front too?!" She panicked. Just then, another round of near-misses shook her fighter. Instinctively, she tightened her hands on the control spheres, inadvertently firing her Dread's weapons.

Two beams of destructive energy lanced out from the fighter's sides, disappearing into the distance. Moments later, an orange fireball exploded into life, indicating a hit.

"HEY! Is that any way to treat someone who came all the way out here to rescue you?!" A familiar voice yelled indignantly over her communicator. With a gasp, she looked up, to see an equally familiar gold Vanguard hurtling out of the cloud.

"It's Mr.Alien!" Dita cried out, overjoyed.

Hibiki jerked the throttles to a stop as he recognized the rapidly approaching Dread and its pilot.

"Oh no, not you! G-get away!"

His Vanguard flailed wildly as he tried to back away, but was too late. As Dita's Dread came into proximity with his Vanguard, a familiar white light flashed, and the two machines combined.

"Wow! What's all this?" Dita asked, looking around the cockpit with delight.

"H-hey, could you please stop moving around so much…?" Hibiki pleaded.

She smiled and turned to look back at him.

"Thank you for coming to rescue me Mr. Alien. I knew you'd come to save me. I believed in you."

Hibiki blushed and looked away awkwardly.

"I didn't come out here to rescue you, I was just…um, looking for you."

"Well, thank you." She said, happily.

At the wreckage, Gascogne could only stare helplessly at the machine in front of her as it cut away at the tendrils surrounding her. Apparently, it didn't want any of them getting in the way of its objective.

"You guys are pretty efficient. I don't suppose I can convince you guys to come work for us instead?"

The machine stared coldly back at her. Its only response was to extend yet ANOTHER razor bladed appendage. A bead of sweat ran down Gascogne's face.

"I guess it's my turn now,huh?"

The blade whirred menacingly as it approached her. Suddenly the machine was blotted out by a huge figure, and a massive fist closed around it, crushing it into a mangled mess of parts. Gascogne looked up, startled, to find the titanic form of the blue Vandread staring back at her.

"Sorry I'm late Ms.Gasco!" Dita waved. Gascogne smiled with relief

"Well it looks like you put off saving me until the last minute, but I guess I couldn't have asked for a better stage ending."

"_**Hahahahaha!**_"

Hibiki jumped. "What the…What was that?!"

"**Well, well, well. It appears you've survived your first encounter…You should consider yourself fortunate to have come across some reinforcements beforehand.**" The voice spoke again.

Gascogne's eyes flickered over the surroundings as she sought the owner of the strange voice over their comm channel. It had an odd, synthetic quality to it, as though the speaker was talking through some kind of mask.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" She demanded.

"**Hahaha! Patience, my dear. You'll know who I am eventually. I'll crush you all to dust soon enough. Look forward to it!**"

"What?!"

"**I have a message for your two new friends…**" The voice darkened.

"**Tell them that the Saber knows they are here. And also, tell them…that an old friend is coming for his revenge.**"

Metal shifted in the darkness, and the stranger stepped forward. Gascogne's eyes widened as she caught sight of the figure.

Still hidden by the shadows cast by the wreckage around them, all the three watchers could see was the silhouette. The stranger stood over twelve feet tall, every square inch of his massive frame covered in heavy armor. Despite his slightly shorter size than a Vanguard, Gascogne got the feeling that this living juggernaut would be more than capable of taking one out in combat. A single eye burned an unholy red in the shadows of the stranger's face.

"What the heck are you?!" Hibiki demanded in disbelief.

"**I am far more powerful than anything you fools could possibly believe.**" The stranger's voice turned sinister. "**Now, if you don't want to die, boy, I strongly suggest you tuck your tail between your legs and run away home like the rest of your pathetic race.**"

"What did you say?!" Hibiki snarled. "You wanna try and tell me that again?"

Gascogne's eyes widened.

"NO! Hibiki! Dita! We have to get out of here! NOW!"

Dita looked at her in confusion.

"Miss Gasco? What's wrong?"

"Just do it, Dita! That's an order!" Gascogne shouted. Even Hibiki was taken aback by the ferocity of her voice.

"Ah! Y-yes ma'am!"

The Vandread ripped away the few remaining tendrils and Gascogne leapt for the airlock.

"GO!" She yelled. Behind them, the stranger began to glow a brilliant violet, energy crackling off of its body.

"**HAHAHA! That's right! Run! Run, so I can crush you all the next time we meet, scum! _HAHAHAHA!_**" The stranger laughed madly, as the massive nimbus of energy enveloped the entire wreckage, the speeding Vandread barely escaping it.

Hibiki looked back over his shoulder.

"What the hell is that?!" He yelled as he saw the huge mass of energy.

"It's a really bad alien!" Dita wailed

"I don't much care what it is, just get us the hell away from it!" Gascogne shouted back.

At the center of the energy, the stranger smiled as the power reached its peak.

"_**SINGULARITY CRUSH!**_"

The dark energy flared white-hot, purple lightning crackling all over it. The three watchers cried out and shut their eyes against the light.

After a few moments, Gascogne finally dared to open her eyes. What she saw, shocked her to the core of her being. Where, a few moments ago, the huge wreckage of the alien vessel had been, there was now…

…Nothing.

"H-holy…" Hibiki was speechless.

"Ms. Gasco, what do we do now?" Dita asked timidly.

Gascogne was too shaken by what she'd seen to correct Dita about her name.

"Let's get back to the ship. The Captain needs to know about this."

As the Vandread turned and continued on its way, Gascogne eyes narrowed as she stared back at where the wreckage had been. This journey could be a lot more dangerous than they'd thought. Especially with an opponent like that out there…

--

"We've managed to secure at least thirty-six bypasses to the reactor!" Parfait said as she checked her monitor. "How are things on your end, Doctor?"

Duelo closed the Navi-bot's panel and turned to face her. "I'm afraid there's nothing more I can do here. We'll just have to make do with what we have."

"What?! But the balance ratio will be completely thrown off if we don't have enough link routes!"

Duelo looked directly at her.

"Do you know what we doctors do when faced with similar situations? We believe in the patient's will to live."

Parfait looked back at him for a few moments, before she smiled and gave a nod of understanding.

--

"Well, here's the elevator. I'm sure you can handle the rest of this on your own. Good luck…"

Sixgun stared gloomily up the elevator shaft as he recalled BC's parting words, and the evil smile she'd given him as she ushered out a slightly bemused Edge.

"She's got it in for me, doesn't she." Sixgun groaned.

"Oh well. Might as well get it over with." He sighed. A pair of concealed panels on his back moved outward and shifted slightly to the sides as another more powerful set of boosters slid out. With that, he launched himself up the shaft, his thrusters blazing. After a few moments of building up speed, he started wall jumping, leaping from one wall to another as he continued his ascent.

'_Let's see… I think she said it was somewhere near the top. Although come to think of it, she never quite told me specifically how many people there were. And what did she mean by_ ' "I'm sure you'll know them once you see them." ' _anyway?_' Sixgun wondered. Five minutes later, the underside of the jammed elevator came into view ahead of him.

"Well, time to get started!" With that opening remark, he switched off his boosters, relying on his accumulated momentum to carry him forward. Timing his rate of deceleration perfectly, so that he'd avoid crashing into the elevator, he made a final jump and caught hold of the edge of the elevator. According to what the silver-haired she-witch had told him, the elevator was only a temporary setup, being used while they tried to figure out what the hell was going on with the ship's systems. Probably the reason it was stuck, too, Sixgun decided.

Using his one handed grip on the edge, he pulled himself up enough to look inside. Any higher and he'd have smacked his head on the top of the shaft. As far as he could tell, the elevator was basically a platform with four supporting poles which met above the platform to form an intersection where the winch was situated. Something had messed up the lift cables and the elevator had continued moving until it had collided with the top of the shaft. All of the poles had been bent out of shape by the impact, but had somehow managed to remain mostly intact, resulting in the platform itself stopping roughly four or five feet away from the shaft ceiling. The winch was pretty much a useless pile of scrap, although the cable had miraculously managed to stay intact, thus keeping the elevator stuck all the way up here. His precursory examination complete, Sixgun turned his attention to the elevator inside. To his surprise, he found his view completely obscured by a mountain of baggage.

"Man, what the hell is all of this stuff?!" Sixgun demanded, poking his hand into the pile. After a few moments of rummaging, his fingers closed on some soft material.

"Hm?" He pulled his hand back out. Dangling from his fingertips was a lacy, skimpy looking red bra.

"Waagh!" He almost dropped it in surprise, before he hurriedly stuffed it back into the pile of luggage. 'Definitely the wrong bag...'

Crammed into the tiny space inside of the elevator, Jura jumped.

"Hey Barnette! I think I heard something!" She said, glancing across at her friend. Barnette nodded.

"Yeah, I heard it too! Maybe they sent someone to get us outta here!" She raised her voice. "Hey! Is anyone out there?"

Outside, Sixgun blinked. The voice was muffled by the luggage blocking him, but somehow it seemed oddly familiar… He shrugged it off. _Ah well. Time to get back to work._

"Yeah, I'm here. How many of you are there?"

Inside, Barnette blinked. The voice was muffled by her and Jura's luggage, but somehow it seemed oddly familiar… She shrugged it off. _I must be imagining it._

"There's just the two of us in here!" She replied.

"Hurry up and get us out of here!" Jura wailed. "It's starting to get hot inside of here!"

Sixgun raised an eyebrow. Ooookay then…

"Alright ladies, hang on! I'll have ya outta there in a matter of minutes!"

With that, Sixgun slammed his left hand flat against the top of the shaft. With his other hand, he tightened his grip on the edge of the lift platform. With nothing but the muscles in his arms and upper body, he began to force the platform down. He snarled as the sheer inertia of the jammed elevator fought back. The synthetic muscles in his arms bulging, inch by inch, he forced it down. When the gap had widened enough, he swung his legs onto the platform. Planting both feet firmly on the surface, he moved both hands to the ceiling, using the added support to push even harder. With the tortured screech of bent metal ringing through the air, Sixgun forced the damaged elevator down. When he judged he'd created enough of a space, he looked up and grinned.

"Heere's Sixgun!"

As she felt the elevator groan to a stop, Barnette managed to get to her knees, reveling in the feeling of an open space after the crushing confines of the elevator. She looked up at their rescuer.

"Well, it's about time!"

"Yeah!" Jura chimed in indignantly. "All of my outfits are probably a mess by now!"

There was suddenly dead silence.

Sixgun's grin disappeared at the same instant Barnette's eyes widened in stunned recognition.

"EEEEEK! IT"S THE INSANE GUY FROM BEFORE!" Jura shrieked in panic as she dove behind Barnette.

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE?!" Sixgun and Barnette both yelled, pointing at each other accusingly, shock and disbelief written all over their faces. Suddenly there was a grating, metallic sound. Sixgun went pale. Currently, he was pointing at Barnette with one hand.

Translation: He was only holding up the roof with one hand.

The same realization must have struck Barnette at the same time. He saw her open her mouth to swear, before he felt the platform jerk. With a muffled oath he gave up on the roof and dove to the floor, taking Barnette with him. Jura had already been crouched on the ground, so she was safe.

Sixgun landed on his hands and knees, a stifled grunt of pain escaping as the elevator slammed upwards again, his back colliding hard with the roof as he used it to stop the ascent again.

"Note to self: In future, remember to keep both hands on the ceiling." He muttered, then winced. "Ow…" It was then he remembered Barnette and Jura. Worried, he glanced around. Jura was flat on her back, staring wide-eyed up at the ceiling mere inches away. She let out a long breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"Why does it always happen to me?!" She complained.

_Well, she's fine_, Sixgun thought, _Now where's the other one?_ He glanced around for a few moments before he felt something brush against the inside of his leg. He looked down, and immediately froze rigid.

Less than a few inches away from his face, Barnette's startled features stared back up at him. From the looks of it, she was as speechless as he was. When he'd pushed her down, he'd somehow inadvertently managed to land on top of her. So now he was on all fours above her, a hand pressing into the floor on either side of her shoulders and a leg to either side of her waist.

He swallowed, hard.

"U-uh…are you all right?" He said, weakly. Barnette managed to nod, not trusting herself to be able to do anything else yet. This was incredibly awkward, and yet some strange feeling inside her rendered her completely paralyzed by the man's nearness.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?! Get off her!" Jura's angry voice broke the spell as she prodded Sixgun in the side with the tip of her sheathed saber. Both of them jumped slightly and hurriedly looked away from each other.

"I can't, you idiot. In case you didn't notice, I'm the only thing keeping this damn thing from crushing us."

"Yeah, about that." Barnette chimed in, still avoiding looking directly at Sixgun.

"Do you have any plan for getting us out of here?"

"Well…o-of course I do! Yeah, a plan… Right. Sure." He said, with a suddenly worried look. A bead of sweat ran down Barnette's neck.

"You don't, do you." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Oh all right! So I didn't actually plan that far ahead! Happy now?!" He winced slightly and gave the roof an annoyed look. "Besides, most plans would usually involve me not holding the roof up with my back."

Barnette snorted. "Some rescuer you are."

Sixgun twitched. "Why, you…" There was another groaning noise and Sixgun felt his hand shift. He looked down and muttered something obscene.

"Not good…The force I'm putting out is starting to break the platform."

Barnette and Jura gasped. "What?!" Following his glance, they were both stunned to see the steel plating of the lift floor beginning to crack and break up beneath his hands and knees.

'Just how strong is this guy?!' Barnette thought in disbelief.

Rapidly running out of time and options, Sixgun looked around frantically, his eyes searching for a way out for the others.

'In this position I can't get enough leverage to get back up, and there's nowhere for them to go. We're at least two stories above the ground. The only way to go is…down…' Sixgun's eyes widened in realization. A plan forming, he looked over to the left. Sure enough, pulled tight by the strain, were the elevator cables, desperately trying to equalize the pressure between the loose counterweight and the awesome strength of Sixgun's cyber-synthetic muscles. A wicked grin slowly crept across his features as he stared at them. Jura suddenly started to get worried. The last time she'd seen this man smile like that, it had been a precursor to a multi-storey free-fall. Underneath Sixgun, Barnette swallowed.

"Uh…why exactly are you smiling…?" Sixgun turned his gaze back to her.

"Just out of curiosity…" He said, his tone suspiciously innocent-sounding. "Which one of those cables over there is connected directly to the counterweight system?"

Barnette blinked, confused. This was a rather abrupt change of topic.

"Umm…I think it's usually the one in the middle…What are you planning?"

Sixgun's grin widened. His muscles straining, he shifted his balance to his right. His right arm now taking the weight, he lifted his left arm, straightening it out.

"Some rescuer, huh?" He said, smiling evilly. He flicked his hand upwards as his favorite Magnum snapped out of its concealed holster in his sleeve and into his waiting grip.

Jura went pale.

"Oh no…"

Barnette barely had time to look scared before Sixgun pulled the trigger. A single bullet blasted through the cable, instantly severing it. Milliseconds later, gravity took effect, sending the lift hurtling down the shaft.

"NOT AGAIN!" Jura's scream echoed off of the metal walls as they hurtled past.

"OH, BE QUIET!" Sixgun yelled as he grabbed her and crouched down. His eyes widened in surprise as he suddenly felt a pair of arms go around his neck and a warm body press up against him. Looking sideways, he found Barnette holding tightly onto him, her face buried in his shoulder.

"Hey. Angel." Sixgun nudged her slightly. Startled, she looked up at him as he gave her a reassuring smile.

"I promised I'd get you down safe, didn't I? As long as you've got my word on it, there's no reason to be scared! So just sit tight and leave the worrying to me, okay?"

Barnette looked up at him uncertainly. Did she dare believe him? Because from her point of view, he didn't seem to be doing such a good job. Especially considering the fact that they were in the middle of falling down an elevator shaft!

"Besides…" He trailed off. Barnette looked at him curiously.

"Besides what?"

Sixgun's grin widened.

"You're a lot prettier when you don't have that kind of expression on your face!"

Barnette started and blushed.

"Why you…"

Sixgun laughed aloud. "That's more like it, Angel!" He turned his attention to Jura. "Hey! Blondie! Quit squawkin' already! You're startin' to send me deaf with that racket!"

Jura jerked with surprise.

"Whaat?! You rude, obnoxious-"

"Sorry, can't hear ya! Final stretch comin' up, so hang on!" Sixgun laughed wildly as the shaft gave way to bright light, the lift plummeting into the open.

"Heh-ha-haa! It's party time!"

The concealed boosters in the backs of his legs snapped open, roaring to life. With a massive blast, he launched himself clear of the falling lift.

"AAAAAAAHH!" Sixgun winced as his two passengers' screams threatened to send him deaf.

"AW SHUT IT!"

A tremendous crash shook the room as the remains of the lift smashed into the floor, dust and debris flying everywhere. As the dust settled, everything was still. For a few moments, nothing moved. Then…

"WOO-HOO, YEAH!" Sixgun reared up out of the smoke, laughing. On the ground next to him, Barnette opened her eyes hesitantly.

"We're…alive?"

Sixgun glanced down at her and grinned cockily.

"Told ya I'd get you outta there. Just leave it to the Sixgun! Heh heh heh!"

"…Scaary person." Jura whimpered, hiding behind Barnette, who frowned.

"Yeah, but couldn't you have done it in a less life threatening way?! We were nearly killed!" She said angrily. Sixgun looked thoughtful, before he shrugged it off.

"Yeah, probably. But that'd take too long, and besides, this way's more fun!" He smiled cheerfully as he finished.

Barnette was momentarily speechless. The next moment, she let out a yelp of surprise as Sixgun grabbed her and Jura and lifted them off the floor effortlessly and put them back on their feet.

"Well, can't sit around here all day, now can we? Well, I did my part. See ya later, ladies!" Before either of them could respond, Sixgun had turned and walked briskly off towards the remains of the elevator. Jura was the first to recover.

"Hey! You're not going anywhere! After you almost killed us, the least you can do is help carry this stuff up!" she said indignantly.

"Do I look like a baggage boy?! Get it yourself! What, you think I like having to deal with you and your constant screaming?! I swear, I think it'll be at least two days before my hearing returns to normal!"

As the two went on bickering, Barnette stayed where she was staring at Sixgun in a daze.

'He jumped off a freefalling elevator carrying the two of us, landed without a scratch, and picked both of us up in one hand each! How strong is this guy?! Is he even human?!'

"Holy - I don't believe this!" Barnette blinked, returning to normal as she heard Sixgun startled yell. She ran over to where he was examining something in the baggage and her jaw dropped as she saw what he was doing.

"This is unbelievable!" Sixgun exclaimed. "A fully restored automatic .60-caliber M60 machine gun, in top condition!" He eagerly turned around the weapon in his hands, viewing it from different angles. He narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Hmm…Fully refitted too, modified firing rate of 130 rounds a minute instead of the usual 120…" He paused for a minute, before raising an eyebrow. "I'll be damned. Reinforced barrel, increased weight, damn…Modified to fire armor piercing rounds, too!" He let out an appreciative whistle. "This is one damn fine gun! I've been looking all over for one of these babies. This is practically priceless! I mean, I've seen some antique weapons before, but this is definitely one of the better ones!" He brought it up to eye level and sighted along the barrel. "Oh, man, what I wouldn't give to be able to try this baby out on the firing range!"

"A…Wha…How…" Barnette stammered. "How'd you know that?!"

Sixgun looked up. "Huh? Oh, well, antique weapons are a big favorite of mine. You might say I'm a collector, not to mention an expert in using 'em. Lasers are good I suppose, but…ahh, damn!" He grinned. "There's nothing like the smell of gunpowder and the kick of a good antique in your hand." He looked away for a moment, a wistful look on his face. Barnette managed to recover herself, and grabbed him.

"Y-you mean you're a collector too?!"

Sixgun looked startled for a moment. "U-um, yeah…? Hey!"

He yelped as Barnette snatched the gun back, a devious smile on her face as she walked a little distance away from him.

"Tell you what. Help us get this stuff upstairs and maybe I'll let you see the rest of my collection. Sound good?"

There were a few moments of silence.

"Well?" She turned back around, and her jaw dropped.

"Well, what's taking you so long?" Sixgun replied nonchalantly, all of Jura's luggage, fuming owner included, slung over one shoulder, and all of Barnette's luggage held under his other arm. Barnette felt a bead of sweat slide down her neck.

"Um…th-that was fast…"

--

Edge stared up at the door to the hangar. According to what the second-in-command of these pirates, the silver-haired woman called BC, had told him, they wer still having some problems with the growth of the strange crystal. Next to Edge, BC stared up at him intently. Of all of their male prisoners, he was the one who worried her the most. The combination of the metal mask on the right side of his face and the high collar that hid the lower part of his face made it difficult to read his expression, not to mention his thoughts.

"Well? Aren't you going to go in?" She asked him, an amused note in her voice. Edge's eyes flicked back to her. After a moment before he nodded slightly. With that, BC tapped the panel and the door hissed open.

Inside, the hangar was a blur of activity. Edge blinked slightly as he took in the extent of the crystal's expansion, not to mention the number of people working inside of the hangar. He raised one eyebrow slightly as he noticed they were all women. In fact, as near as he could tell, with the exception of himself, Sixgun and the men that had been taken as prisoners, the entire crew was female. Mentally, he decided to get his brother to do some digging on the reason men and women from the two planets seemed to hate each other to the point of going to war with each other. With that, Edge headed into the hangar.

Some distance away, Meia sighed as she cut away another section of crystal from the base of the platform for the modified Dreads. The growth seemed to have slowed down, enough so that she wasn't sure whether or not it had stopped altogether. Unfortunately, it had managed to cover approximately a third of the entire deck. Removing it would be a major headache for them.

A sudden whispering in the people working nearby caused her to look up. Her eyes widened as she saw the reason.

Stalking grimly into the hangar, BC not far behind, was the unmistakable figure of Edge Axel, his dark cloak and violet hair immediately identifying him. His eyes were as cold as ever, flickering over the hangar as he scanned the area.

Edge frowned slightly. According to the readouts, the crystal was simply a way of removing excess impurities from the reactor. Similar to the way Edge's wings were used to radiate excess heat, maintaining a constant body temperature. How it was capable of that, even he did not know. He remembered the strange feeling he had gotten when he'd encountered the mysterious reactor earlier, as if he'd known it from somewhere before.

Suddenly, he sensed someone watching him. He whipped his head sideways…

And froze as his eyes met a flash of blue.

Meia's eyes widened as his gaze met her own. Again, she felt the strange sense of familiarity. She shook it off, reminding herself that this man had disgraced her by saving her in their last battle. Likewise, the momentary flicker of surprise in Edge's eyes disappeared as he continued walking, his emotions hidden again. Ahead of him, people hastily got out of his way, none of them wanting to get any nearer to him than necessary.

Meia tensed slightly, frowning as he drew ever closer…

And walked straight past her, stopping at a sizeable concentration of the crystal formation. He hesitated, looking around.

"You look worried." Meia jumped, and looked back to see the smirking features of BC.

"Why is he here?" Meia asked, her voice flat.

"Oh, I just thought you might need some help getting rid of the crystal, so I brought him here." BC replied nonchalantly.

"What makes you think he'll be any more help? Already he's thrown off the others' concentration just by being here." Meia said, annoyed.

"Yourself included?" BC replied, a slight smile on her lips.

Meia started. "Wh-what? What do you mean?"

"Simple." BC replied, closing her eyes. "I know your personality. You're probably still angry that he saved you in that last fight. It must be doubly irritating since he's a Tarak, too."

Meia's eyes narrowed slightly. "And?"

"And, you're being foolish. Even though you have your pride, your life is more important right now. We still don't know what we're up against, and we need you to lead the Dread teams. If you died back there, it's quite likely we'd be in a lot more trouble in the future."

Meia looked away.

"Do you understand?" BC said, her face solemn.

"…Yes…I understand." Meia said, after a pause.

BC nodded approvingly.

"Good. When you're finished here, I'd like you to come up to the briefing room. We sent the boy to retrieve Gascogne and Dita, so they'll probably have a lot to report."

Meia nodded, before she turned away, moving off to check on one of the other groups. Occasionally, though, she would glance back over her shoulder at the black swordsman.

Edge closed his eyes. An interesting conversation…

He looked back at the crystal and came to a decision. Slowly, he lifted his right arm and flexed the fingers.

'What's he doing?' Meia wondered. Suddenly, she gasped. Barely visible, a crimson aura was forming around his hand, intensifying by the minute.

'What is that?!'

Edge's features darkened slightly.

"**CORRUPTION.** **_ENGAGE._**"

His raised hand slammed down palm first on the crystal formation. Meia flinched as an invisible wave rippled outward from Edge. Almost instantaneously, the effects became visible. Moving outwards in every direction, a wave of gray was advancing through the crystals. As Meia watched stunned, the gray moved from one crystal formation to another, until it had consumed all of the remaining blue crystals.

"He's draining the crystals of energy!" She realized in amazement. Suddenly she gasped. In some places the gray had actually begun to move out of the crystals, advancing across the floor.

Edge clenched his fist and slowly withdrew his hand, straightening back up. As he did so, all around him, the now gray crystals began to crumble, breaking apart as cracks raced across their surface. Near the far wall, people leapt back in shock as the formations that had been covering it came crashing down in pieces.

Suddenly a huge impact rocked the hangar as an asteroid ricocheted off the hull. Meia staggered slightly, but managed to stay on her feet. She whirled around, startled as a scream rang out.

Near the other end of the hangar, one of the workers, a young girl, had fallen when the shockwave hit. Now she lay directly underneath a huge outcropping on the ceiling. Even as Meia watched, cracks raced through it, threatening to send the whole mass crashing down.

"Marie!" One of the girls stopped, turning back to help her fallen comrade.

"No, Sis! It's too dangerous!" the girl cried out, struggling to get back on her feet. The next moment there was an ominous rumble, and the outcropping finally gave in to the pull of gravity, plummeting down towards the helpless Marie.

Meia was already running, even though she knew it was too late.

"MARIE!" The girl's sister had started running towards her desperately, heedless of the danger, when a sudden blur blasted past her, knocking her back.

"What?!"

With a deafening crash, the crystal smashed into the floor, fragments flying everywhere as dust filled the air.

Meia skidded to a halt at the edge of the rubble, next to the girl's sister, who she now recognized as Elena, one of her pilots.

Elena stared numbly into the clouds of dust hiding her sister from her view.

"No…She can't be gone…Sister…" she whispered.

Meia rested a sympathetic hand on her shoulder before she turned around, her eyes frigid. That swordsman had caused enough trouble. She scanned the hangar for his easily recognizable figure, before she realized with a jolt that he was nowhere to be seen.

Just then, the rubble behind her shifted, and she felt BC grab her shoulder. She spun around, startled. Could the girl have somehow survived?

There was a flash of red, and the entire pile exploded outwards as a pair of monstrous black wings burst free of the wreckage. Meia lifted an arm to shield her eyes as a shockwave of dust and debris hurtled past her. When it was safe, she lowered it. Her eyes widened as a black figure came into view.

Standing tall in the center of the wreckage, his wings spread to their full, awesome span, the raven specter of Edge Axel watched them, his eyes cold. In his arms he carried the girl, Marie, a scared look on her face.

'Unbelievable…'BC thought, amazed.

"Impossible…" Meia whispered, stunned. She hadn't even seen him move, and yet he'd managed to get past all of them and get to Marie in time to protect her!

Without another word, Edge strode out of the remaining rubble.

"Can you walk?"

Marie jumped, startled at the sound of his voice.

"U-um, y-yes I think so…"

Edge nodded. Stopping near Elena, he shifted his arms, gently setting Marie down on her feet. She stumbled slightly, but remained standing. With that, Edge stepped away, his wings refolding.

"Marie! I'm so glad you're alright! I thought I'd lost you forever!" Elena cried, hugging her younger sister tightly.

"It's okay, big sister! I'm fine, really I am! He saved me!"

Edge turned away, the sounds of the sisters' reunion and the happiness of the other crew members helping them ringing in his ears.

"Hey! Mister!"

Edge paused and glanced back. The girl, Marie was looking at him, a nervous but determined look on her face.

"Umm…well, thank you for saving me…" She blushed slightly in embarrassment.

Edge looked at her for a moment, before he nodded in acknowledgement. With that, he turned and walked away, silent as ever. Meia's eyes met his own as he passed her, neither of them saying anything. She clenched her fist and looked down, frustrated, after he had passed. Suddenly she noticed a strange trail of dark red, almost black droplets on the floor. Following it with her eyes, she traced it back to the shattered crystal fragments, some of them glistening with it. Her eyes widened as realization struck her and she spun around as a strange sound reached her ears.

Edge's eyes widened, clutching his chest as he staggered sideways, the pain hitting him like a physical blow. He choked again, coughing up blood as his body struggled to heal his injuries. He gritted his teeth, bearing the agony. Those crystals… Something about them seemed to have a strange effect on his body. What, he didn't know, but it didn't matter right now. The Corruption always cost him a lot and following that with his rescue of the girl had caused him more damage than he had expected.

He stifled a snarl as the last gash finally closed, and the pain eased. He looked down at the dark liquid staining his hand, its darkness reminding him of the taint in his blood. He clenched his fist tightly, a brief flicker of anger crossing his face. He staggered back up and limped off towards the exit, his steps unsteady.

Meia watched him go, still comprehending what she'd just seen.

'He rescued her…even though it meant grieviously injuring himself to do it…That's not the only time he's done that either… When he saved me from that attack in the last fight, he did it by almost getting himself killed!'

She stared after his retreating figure, a strange look on her face.

'Why is he so willing to sacrifice himself to protect us, people he doesn't even know?'

Suddenly the thought occurred to her that he was leaving the hangar, which meant that she was letting him go without someone to keep an eye on him. She started off after him, leaving instructions with a crew member to finish cleaning up the debris.

As Edge reached the door, Meia saw him hesitate. He turned his head slightly, looking back over his shoulder. At first she thought he was looking at her, but as se drew closer, she realized he was looking past her, back at the girl he had saved and her friends, all crowding around her, happy that she was alive.

As she drew to a stop, she was surprised to see a distant look of sadness in his eyes as he watched them, as though he was seeing another scene instead…

"…Edge?" She asked, surprised by her own hesitance.

Edge looked towards her, returning from whatever distant plane he had been on. His features softened slightly as his gaze met hers. Again, Meia hesitated, a strange feeling running through her body.

"I-it's nothing…" She stammered, looking away, her cheeks reddening slightly.

'Why does this man affect me this way…?' She wondered.

Suddenly, a soft, tinkling noise drew her attention. Recovering, she looked around for the source.

There, gleaming on Edge's chest, was a beautiful golden locket, the slender gold links of its chain causing the tinkling noise, as he shifted. Its flawless, smoothly curved surface was covered with intricately carved lines, each inlaid with a glittering silver metal. Against the black background of Edge's cloak, it was all the more noticeable.

Seeing Meia's surprised expression, Edge reached up and clasped the locket firmly in his grasp, stowing it beneath his cloak. He avoided her eyes, looking away.

"…"

Seeing the look in his eyes, Meia decided not to question him further.

Just then, a low rumble swept through the ship. As it died down, the lights flickered and brightened to twice the previous intensity, returning the hangar to its normal state of illumination.

Meia looked around in confusion as Edge instinctively reached for his sword.

"We've gotten power back?"

On the bridge of the Ikazuchi, Magno blinked in surprise as the fan mounted on her console gave a click, its blades whirring back to life. Belvedere and Amarone gasped as their consoles hummed back to life, glowing brightly.

"Captain, the system just started up again!" Belvedere exclaimed in delight.

"It seems to have rebooted itself somehow!" Amarone reported.

Magno's eyes widened.

"BART! Did you hear that?! We've got power back! DO SOMETHING!"

**In the helm…**

Bart stared up in panic at the huge asteroid filling his vision.

"Oh, NOOOOO!!" He screamed, throwing his arms in front of his face, terrified.

The next moment, there was a tremendous flash, and the asteroid shattered, split in half.

"It looks like this is the end for me…" Bart whimpered. After a few moments had passed,without the sense of a crushing impact, he hesitantly opened one eye.

Silhouetted in the cloud of gases and dust left by the asteroid's destruction, the shape of the blue Vandread became visible, its energy lances cooling.

Inside the cockpit, Hibiki slumped back against the seat, completely drained.

"I can't move anymore." He groaned. Unfortunately, his red-haired copilot wasn't having the same problem.

"See Ms Gasco? I told you Mr. Alien could do it! Wasn't that amazing?" Dita said excitedly, bouncing up and down.

"Whatever, now could you just hurry up and get me out of here?!" Gascogne replied exasperatedly, also crammed into the tiny cockpit.

"He's sure got a lot of tricks up his sleeve, doesn't he?" Bart muttered, slightly embarrassed.

As the aftershocks of the asteroid's destruction reached the hangar, Meia stumbled backwards, only to find her fall arrested. Glancing to her left in surprise, she realized that what was supporting her was none other than Edge's wing. He'd seen her stumble and, preferring to keep his hands free in case it was an attack, had opened it behind her. He was now looking up at the ceiling warily, trying to figure out what was going on. When the vibrations stopped, he waited a few moments before relaxing his guard. He gave Meia a questioning glance.

Straightening up hastily, Meia brushed herself off.

"We must have hit something." She stated, heading towards the door. Edge nodded, and started after her.

Once the door had shut behind them, she paused.

"I'm heading up to the bridge. I don't have time to take you back to the brig, so you'll have to come along with me." She said, half-hoping Edge would refuse. The thought of his shadow all the way up to the bridge made even her uneasy. To her disappointment, he merely shrugged, and gave her an expectant look. She sighed, and continued walking.

**On the bridge…**

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the blue shape of the Vandread flew in towards the docking bay.

"Well, we're still alive somehow." BC commented. Just then, the comm channel beeped.

"It's a message from the Vandread." Belvedere reported. "It's Ms.Gasco."

"Put it through." BC ordered. Belvedere nodded, and a moment later, an image of the green haired supply chief appeared on the main screen.

"Ah, Gascogne. It's nice to see you managed to make it back safely." Magno commented.

Gascogne's face was grim. " We almost didn't make it back at all."

Magno's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean? Did something happen?"

"Captain…there was something waiting for us in those ruins. Something we've never seen before."

"What? You mean a different type of these machines?" BC asked.

"No. This was on a different level altogether. I'll go into more detail when I meet you inside."

Her face darkened.

"This whole mess just got a lot more dangerous. Gascogne out."

With that, the screen clicked off, leaving behind a now worried and confused bridge crew.

"Wh-what did she mean?" Amarone asked nervously.

Magno's eyes narrowed. "I have a feeling we'll soon find out. BC, when you're finished here, meet us in the briefing room."

Bc nodded and turned back to the bridge crew as Magno's chair separated from its base station and began rolling up the slope towards the briefing room.

"Oh, and also…Call those two strange men to the debriefing as well."

BC's eyes widened. "You mean Edge and Sixgun?! Wh-why?"

"Let's just say…I've got a hunch those two may be more mixed up in this than it first appears." Magno muttered.

BC hesitated for a moment before she finally nodded.

"Understood, Captain."

--

**Back at Barnette's room…**

Sixgun gave a grunt as he dropped off the last load of baggage from the elevator. He sighed and stretched his back.

"Dammit, how much stuff do you guys have, anyway?"

"Oh quit whining already." Barnette muttered. "That was the last batch."

"Really? Oh, good!" Sixgun grinned.

"By the way…"

Sixgun glanced at Barnette. "Hm? What's wrong?"

WHACK!

"WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO PUT ME DOWN?!" Barnette yelled. Sixgun had completely forgotten that along with the other stuff, he'd picked up Barnette and Jura as well, so he could move faster.

"Er…Right, sorry…" He dropped her and Jura off on the pile of luggage as well.

"Gee, thanks a bunch."Jura muttered, rubbing her sore behind.

"All-righty then!" Sixgun grinned, rubbing his hands together gleefully. "Now then, about that weapon collection…"

Barnette got back to her feet, wincing slightly. " Well, you sure don't give up easily."

Suddenly she halted, a beeping noise coming from the communicator at her waist.

"This is Barnette." She said, grabbing it.

"Barnette? This is BC. Is Sixgun with you?"

Barnette glanced across at Sixgun, who was giving her a curious look.

"Yes he's here. He just helped me and Jura drop off our stuff at our new quarters. Why? Is something wrong?"

There was a pause.

"No, not really. The captain wants to see him and Edge in the briefing room. Gascogne's come back, and the Captain wants them there for that report. Could you bring him up?"

Barnette hesitated for a moment, before she finally gave a sigh of defeat.

"All right, I'll bring him."

"Roger that." BC replied before cutting off the link.

Barnette turned to Jura. "Do you think you can get started on cleaning this stuff up? The commander wants me to take Sixgun up to the briefing room."

Jura sighed. "Can't they think of these things at a better time? All right, I'll take care of things here. You go on ahead."

"All right. Thanks Jura!" Barnette grinned. With that, she ran out the door, dragging a protesting Sixgun behind her.

"Wha? Hey, where're we going?! I didn't get to see the guns yet…!"

"Sorry, but that'll have to wait! The Captain wants to see you and your brother, so we've gotta go!"

Sixgun's eyes widened. "…Wants to see us…?" A beeping sound drew his attention. "Hold it." He came to a dead stop, jerking Barnette almost off her feet.

"H-hey! What was that for?" She stopped at the look on Sixgun's face. He was staring into space, a stunned expression on his face. He tapped the earpiece mounted on the side of his head again, hoping that what he was seeing was wrong.

'The…wreckage…It's gone! It's completely disappeared from my sensors!'

His face darkened. "SYNDICATE!" he snarled. Barnette jumped, startled at the sudden venom in his voice.

"Wh-what?" She stammered, confused. Sixgun blinked, returning to the present.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. Anyway, let's go! She wanted to see me didn't she?!" Before Barnette could react, he'd swept her off her feet and into his arms, bridal style.

"H-hey! What are you doing…?" She demanded, blushing. Sixgun merely grinned.

"You should know me well enough by now to know the answer to that question, Angel!" A familiar humming sound reached Barnette's ears.

"Oh, no…"

"MAGNION BOOSTERS!"

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttt………!"

Sixgun rocketed off down the corridors, laughing wildly.

--

Magno and BC stared across at Gasco inquiringly. The Supply chief's entire upper body was crisscrossed with bandages, a result of her tangle with the mechanical tendrils earlier.

"What happened to you?" BC demanded.

"I had a run in with a trap left behind in the wreckage. It wasn't completely dead like we thought."

"It managed to survive that attack?!"

"Well…not exactly…" Gascogne then went on to explain the regeneration of the damaged enemy ship.

"I see…" Magno said when she had finished. "But what of this enemy you were telling us about earlier?"

Gascogne's face darkened. "I honestly have no idea what it was. It stayed in the shadows the whole time, so I didn't get a clear view of it. All I could get a measure of was its size. It was some kind of humanoid machine, heavily armored and standing only a little shorter than a normal Van-type. But despite the size difference, that thing could have easily taken out the Vandread without breaking a sweat."

"What?!" BC gasped.

Gascogne tossed the data disk they'd retrieved onto the table, a disgusted look on her face.

"That's what we managed to salvage from the remains. I sure hope there's something useful on it, because there's no way we can go back for another try."

Magno's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

Gascogne looked surprised. "You mean you didn't pick that up on the sensors?"

BC shook her head. "We've been in this nebula since you first went inside the wreckage. We haven't been able to pick up anything outside because of interference. Why? What happened out there?"

Gascogne sighed. "Well, I guess I'd be better off showing you instead of just telling you about it. The quality might not be all that great, but at least you'll know why I'm so worried."

She slid another disk into the player in the center of the table as the lights dimmed. "This is the video log from the Vandread's cameras."

Fifteen minutes later, as the light of the Singularity Crush faded from the monitors, the three of them watched the blank screen in silence. BC collapsed back into her seat, stunned.

"Wh-what incredible power… Can such a weapon actually exist…?"

"I think it not only exists, but almost blew me up today." Gascogne commented drily.

"…It seems we may be up against far more formidable foes than we previously thought." Magno said, finally. " However, one thing still bothers me. What was that message he gave you?"

Gascogne shrugged. "You heard it yourself. Something about a 'Saber' and an old friend coming for revenge. Beyond that, it doesn't make any sense."

A familiar laugh rang out, accompanied by the faint smell of smoke.

"Well then, maybe you should leave the explaining to the ones who the message was meant for, hm?"

All three women spun around, startled. Resting his elbow on the doorframe, a cigarette clenched between his teeth, Axel Sixgun gave them a cocky smile, a shaken-looking Barnette standing next to him. On her other side, Meia stood with an equally startled look. Edge, as usual, simply stood silently watching the dark screen, his face expressionless.

"What the- How long have you been there?!" BC demanded, startled.

Sixgun sighed and strolled into the room. Pulling out a chair, he dropped down into it and kicked his legs up onto the table, folding his arms behind his head.

"Long enough to hear the whole sad story." He commented. His face darkened. "You were right to run away. At this point in time there's no way any of you would be able to stand up against that guy."

Gascogne blinked. "You know him?"

Sixgun gave an unpleasant smirk. "We've met."

"You've seen the machine type enemies so far, right? They're just programmed machines. This guy…is on a whole other level altogether. That blast attack of his..?"

Sixgun's voice turned serious.

"That was the weakest level of it."

"WHAT?!" Everyone stared at Sixgun in shock.

"I-impossible…" BC gasped, stunned. Sixgun nodded.

"Trust me, you don't want to be within half a light-year of that guy when he gets serious. At the higher levels, I've seen him destroy entire planets with that attack."

"No way…" Barnette whispered, horrified.

'What kind of monster is this thing?!' Meia thought, her mind reeling.

"Well, Edge." Sixgun grinned, closing his eyes, "For them to send out someone like the invincible Singularity so early in the fight, you know what that means, right?"

Edge's eyes darkened. "The Syndicate is beginning to move…"

"What are you talking about?" BC asked them, confused.

"This was a warning." Magno said, quietly. BC turned to face her, surprised.

"…A warning?"

Sixgun nodded. "Bingo. This man is the one we call Singularity. His strength is legendary and he's rumored to be almost invincible. Even Edge and I have only fought him once and we nearly died to beat him." He swung his legs off the table and got to his feet.

"Singularity's purpose here was merely to ensure that we didn't get our hands on any data from the remains of that ship. He didn't entirely succeed, but he made his point."

"If he was serious… Believe me…There wouldn't be a single atom of this ship left behind."

'_Hell, there wouldn't even be a nebula here still, but best not to tell them that right now…_'

Gasco bit her lip.

"Against an enemy like that, how can we possibly win?"

Sixgun grinned. "You guys just take care of those enemy ships. Leave Singularity to us. There is some good news, though. From what I saw of that Crush, he's still having trouble controlling the density of that energy, meaning he still hasn't managed to recover from the damages we gave him in our last fight. Hopefully, that'll keep him out of our way for a while." He sighed. " A small reprieve, I know, but considering our current level of defense, it's a hell of a lot better than the alternative."

Magno nodded.

"Unfortunately, I must agree with you there. With this 'Singularity' out of the way temporarily, we'll have to set that aside and focus more on making it back to Mejere safely, as well as finding out what the purpose of these enemies is. I don't suppose either of you would know the answer to that…?" She gave Sixgun a piercing look.

"No, I'm afraid not." Sixgun said, frowning. "My intelligence doesn't have anything on them, save for their identification signal. That's how I was able to find them the first time. The only way we know of Singularity is that we've fought him ourselves. Everything else is all just rumors that I can't confirm yet."

"I see… A pity you can't help us out any further, but that will be all for now."

Sixgun nodded and the Axel brothers turned to leave.

"Hey Barnette, don't you still owe me a tour of those guns?"

" Hey, wait!" As Barnette ran after Sixgun, Meia turned to the Captain.

"I should be going as well. The cleanup operations are still underway."

BC nodded. "Very well."

--

As he walked away from the briefing room, Sixgun's thoughts were dark.

'While it's true what I said about those weird machines, it's not quite true that I don't have any more info on Singularity…far less for the fact that there are opponents even more powerful than him… The three Chaos Generals…'

'…And the monstrosity known as the Saber Draconis…'

'The more info I find about the Syndicate, the more dangerous they seem to become… I wonder…'

When the final confrontation comes again…just like it did all those years ago… how many will fall in battle this time…?

He pressed a hand to the eyepatch on the right side of his face, a reminder of the price paid ten years ago...

_**So be it…**_

--

Within the shadowed walls of the Draconis Citadel, Singularity knelt before his master.

"I see you've returned, Destroyer."

"Yes, I have, Lord Saber. My apologies, but I was unable to destroy the remnants of the vessel before they retrieved some of the data."

The white haired figure smiled.

"No need to apologise, Singularity. I anticipated that this might happen, due to your remaining damages from your last encounter with the Axels."

Singularity growled angrily, remembering his last defeat.

"Why didn't you let me destroy them now, while they're still weak?! It would have taken less than a minute!"

"Patience, Singularity." The Saber Draconis stood up. His ebony cloak billowing behind him, he strode over to a massive wall screen.

"Crushing them now would have been easy, correct. However, that would have ended this game far too quickly for my tastes. Letting them regroup their scattered forces and recover their wits first will make this fight last much longer, and also…"

He paused, a terrifying smile crossing his features.

"It will make their dying cries so much sweeter when I annihilate their pathetic forces with the full might of the Draconis Syndicate! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Behind his jet black helmet, Singularity smiled evilly as his master's insane laughter echoed throughout the Citadel. When next they met, he'd make good on that promise he'd left them with.

The promise of a cold, agonizing death…


End file.
